How Math Anxiety Relates to Number-Space Associations

Overview

Journal Front Psychol

Date 2016 Sep 30

PMID 27683570

Citations 12

Authors

Carrie Georges

Danielle Hoffmann

Christine Schiltz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Given the considerable prevalence of math anxiety, it is important to identify the factors contributing to it in order to improve mathematical learning. Research on math anxiety typically focusses on the effects of more complex arithmetic skills. Recent evidence, however, suggests that deficits in basic numerical processing and spatial skills also constitute potential risk factors of math anxiety. Given these observations, we determined whether math anxiety also depends on the quality of spatial-numerical associations. Behavioral evidence for a tight link between numerical and spatial representations is given by the SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect, characterized by faster left-/right-sided responses for small/large digits respectively in binary classification tasks. We compared the strength of the SNARC effect between high and low math anxious individuals using the classical parity judgment task in addition to evaluating their spatial skills, arithmetic performance, working memory and inhibitory control. Greater math anxiety was significantly associated with stronger spatio-numerical interactions. This finding adds to the recent evidence supporting a link between math anxiety and basic numerical abilities and strengthens the idea that certain characteristics of low-level number processing such as stronger number-space associations constitute a potential risk factor of math anxiety.

Citing Articles

Implications of neural integration of math and spatial experiences for math ability and math anxiety.

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Mathematics anxiety and number processing: The link between executive functions, cardinality, and ordinality.

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Proactive control of attention in math-anxious individuals.

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Mathematics and Numerosity but Not Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Correlate with Mathematical Anxiety in Adults.

Maldonado Moscoso P, Castaldi E, Arrighi R, Primi C, Caponi C, Buonincontro S Brain Sci. 2022; 12(4).

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