Mathematical anxiety is linked to reduced cognitive reflection: a potential road from discomfort in the mathematics classroom to susceptibility to biases.

Kinga Morsanyi,Caterina Primi,Chiara Busdraghi

doi:10.1186/1744-9081-10-31

Kinga Morsanyi, Caterina Primi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-10-31

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Abstract

BackgroundWhen asked to solve mathematical problems, some people experience anxiety and threat, which can lead to impaired mathematical performance (Curr Dir Psychol Sci 11:181–185, 2002). The present studies investigated the link between mathematical anxiety and performance on the cognitive reflection test (CRT; J Econ Perspect 19:25–42, 2005). The CRT is a measure of a person’s ability to resist intuitive response tendencies, and it correlates strongly with important real-life outcomes, such as time preferences, risk-taking, and rational thinking.MethodsIn Experiments 1 and 2 the relationships between maths anxiety, mathematical knowledge/mathematical achievement, test anxiety and cognitive reflection were analysed using mediation analyses. Experiment 3 included a manipulation of working memory load. The effects of anxiety and working memory load were analysed using ANOVAs.ResultsOur experiments with university students (Experiments 1 and 3) and secondary school students (Experiment 2) demonstrated that mathematical anxiety was a significant predictor of cognitive reflection, even after controlling for the effects of general mathematical knowledge (in Experiment 1), school mathematical achievement (in Experiment 2) and test anxiety (in Experiments 1–3). Furthermore, Experiment 3 showed that mathematical anxiety and burdening working memory resources with a secondary task had similar effects on cognitive reflection.ConclusionsGiven earlier findings that showed a close link between cognitive reflection, unbiased decisions and rationality, our results suggest that mathematical anxiety might be negatively related to individuals’ ability to make advantageous choices and good decisions.

Highlights

When asked to solve mathematical problems, some people experience anxiety and threat, which can lead to impaired mathematical performance (Curr Dir Psychol Sci 11:181–185, 2002)
The prediction that the link between the cognitive reflection test (CRT) and maths anxiety is not fully mediated by maths knowledge or maths achievement is key to our account, as we aim to show that mathematical anxiety is negatively related to individuals’ ability to avoid the typical pitfalls of reasoning and decision-making
In the studies that we report below, we tested the prediction that maths anxiety is linked to relatively poor performance on the CRT, even when the effects of general mathematical knowledge or school maths achievement, and test anxiety are taken into account

Summary

Introduction

When asked to solve mathematical problems, some people experience anxiety and threat, which can lead to impaired mathematical performance (Curr Dir Psychol Sci 11:181–185, 2002). The CRT is a measure of a person’s ability to resist intuitive response tendencies, and it correlates strongly with important real-life outcomes, such as time preferences, risk-taking, and rational thinking. Children begin their formal education with a very positive view of mathematics [1,2], as they progress through education, many of them develop negative feelings and attitudes (cf., [3]). Other studies (e.g., [12]) found a link between maths anxiety and arithmetic performance in experimental settings These findings suggest that maths anxiety can lead to suboptimal maths performance, it is not the case that maths anxiety is necessarily associated with low levels of numeracy or poor maths performance (cf., [13,14])

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