Math Anxiety and Math Performance: How Do They Relate?

Abstract

This chapter presents an interview of Erin Maloney, a researcher at the Human Performance Lab at the University of Chicago. She wanted to focus on figuring out how math anxiety works, and whether people who are weak in mathematics compared to their peers also have more math anxiety. When thinking about math anxiety and math performance, there is a chicken or egg problem. Working with undergraduate students, Maloney and her colleagues first measured their math anxiety levels. To try to better understand the relationship between mathematics skills and the development of math anxiety, Maloney turned her attention to young children. The researchers asked children to complete three different assessments to measure their math anxiety level, working memory, and math problem solving strategies. Rather, the math anxiety seems to be brought out when parents help their children with math homework. Teachers talked about their varying levels of math anxiety and how they think the influenced choices they made in their lives.