Do implicitly measured math–anxiety associations play a role in math behavior?

Abstract

The current study examined the role of implicitly measured associations (henceforth referred to as associations) between math and anxiety in adolescents’ math anxiety. Previous research has shown that associations predicted behavior independent of explicit measures. In this study, it was investigated whether math–anxiety associations would be related to math anxiety and whether they predicted math behavior as well as state math anxiety independent of explicitly measured math anxiety. In addition, the domain specificity of math–anxiety associations for predicting math behavior was investigated. Adolescents’ anxiety associations and self-reported anxiety were assessed for three domains: math anxiety, foreign language (English) anxiety, and trait anxiety. A sample of 189 secondary school students performed three single-target implicit association tests, performed a math problem solving task, and filled out questionnaires. Overall, adolescents showed stronger math–anxiety associations in comparison with math–calmness associations. In contrast to our hypotheses, math–anxiety associations were not related and did not uniquely or specifically predict math behavior and state math anxiety. Explicit anxiety measures demonstrated specificity in predicting math and English grades as well as state math anxiety. The innovative aspects of this study are the investigation of implicitly measured math–anxiety associations and the relation to math anxiety and math behavior. Further research is needed to develop tasks that are better able to capture the most relevant math–threat associations and to investigate which math behavior might be most strongly influenced by these associations.