How does anxiety typically affect cognitive performance?

Anxiety typically impairs cognitive performance, particularly in areas such as attention and memory. When an individual experiences anxiety, their body goes into a heightened state of arousal, which can lead to difficulty concentrating and focusing on tasks. This heightened state can make it challenging to maintain attention, as the individual's mind may be preoccupied with anxious thoughts or worries.

Furthermore, anxiety can affect working memory, which is crucial for processing information and carrying out cognitive tasks. With increased anxiety levels, there may be distractions that impair the ability to retrieve stored information, thereby diminishing performance on memory tasks.

In contrast, the other options suggest positive effects or no effects on cognitive functioning, which do not align with current psychological research that indicates anxiety generally has a detrimental effect on these cognitive processes.