This symposium paper describes 2 experiments in which the principles of observational learning were applied in school settings to the treatment of 2 separate groups of test-anxious junior high school students. The first experiment was designed to test the assumption that the counter-conditioning responses thought to occur in systematic desensitization of avoidance behavior could be acquired vicariously. The 2nd was designed to permit evaluation of the effects of expectations for benefit and diverse observational styles exhibited by observer subjects. Results included: (1) experimentals achieved a substantial and highly significant decrease in reported test anxiety; the control group increased slightly in anxiety; (2) neither vicarious nor direct treatment, group or individual, or any combination of these treatments produced differential change; and (3) observation of desensitization, using either live or videotaped stimuli, appears to offer an economical and efficient method of treating test anxiety in the school setting. (TA)