There are many students who find public speaking to provoke anxiety. This study investigated two interventions, repeated imagination and expressive writing. During repeated imagination, students imagined giving successful presentations and wrote about the experience. During expressive writing, students wrote about their thoughts and fears related to public speaking. We asked whether these interventions could reduce anxiety and increase self-efficacy related to public speaking, and whether these interventions could increase positive memories for and future predictions of positive public speaking events. There were 87 participants randomly assigned to one of three conditions: repeated imagination, expressive writing, or the control group (filler task). Participants were told they would give a speech while being recorded, and then completed the intervention for their randomly assigned group. Then, participants were asked to complete the Public Speaking Self-Efficacy and Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) scales, and answered questions about their memory of and future predictions for positive public speaking experiences. Finally, participants were told they did not need to give a speech and were debriefed. Results showed no statistically significant differences between the three conditions on the three measures; however, some interesting results still emerged. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
