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.
Highlights
Math anxiety has been defined as an emotional response evoked in some individuals when dealing with numbers and mathematical problems, disrupting their performance (SuárezPellicioni et al, 2015)
Considering recent findings suggesting that deficits in basic numerical processing and spatial skills might be at the origin of math anxiety (Maloney et al, 2010, 2011, 2012; NúñezPeña and Suárez-Pellicioni, 2014; Dietrich et al, 2015; Ferguson et al, 2015), the present study aimed to determine whether the quality of spatial-numerical associations might be a potential risk factor of math anxiety
We found that greater math anxiety was associated with stronger spatio-numerical interactions in the parity judgment task
Summary
Math anxiety has been defined as an emotional response evoked in some individuals when dealing with numbers and mathematical problems, disrupting their performance (SuárezPellicioni et al, 2015). Suggests that math anxiety relates to performance deficits on complex arithmetic tasks, and concerns basic numerical processing (Maloney et al, 2010, 2011; Núñez-Peña and Suárez-Pellicioni, 2014; Dietrich et al, 2015). Rubinsten and Tannock (2010) observed a strong relationship between developmental dyscalculia and math anxiety These findings suggest that basic numerical deficits likely contribute to the emergence of math anxiety, possibly via compromising the development of high-level mathematical skills (Holloway and Ansari, 2009)
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