The relationships among working memory, math anxiety, and performance

Individuals with high math anxiety demonstrated smaller working memory spans, especially when assessed with a computation-based span task. This reduced working memory capacity led to a pronounced increase in reaction time and errors when mental addition was performed concurrently with a memory load...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of experimental psychology. General Vol. 130; no. 2; p. 224
Main Authors Ashcraft, M H, Kirk, E P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.06.2001
Subjects
Adult
Anxiety - psychology
Educational Status
Female
Humans
Individuality
Male
Mathematics
Mental Recall
Problem Solving
Reaction Time
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Summary:Individuals with high math anxiety demonstrated smaller working memory spans, especially when assessed with a computation-based span task. This reduced working memory capacity led to a pronounced increase in reaction time and errors when mental addition was performed concurrently with a memory load task. The effects of the reduction also generalized to a working memory-intensive transformation task. Overall, the results demonstrated that an individual difference variable, math anxiety, affects on-line performance in math-related tasks and that this effect is a transitory disruption of working memory. The authors consider a possible mechanism underlying this effect--disruption of central executive processes--and suggest that individual difference variables like math anxiety deserve greater empirical attention, especially on assessments of working memory capacity and functioning.
ISSN:0096-3445
DOI:10.1037/0096-3445.130.2.224