Math Anxiety in Combination With Low Visuospatial Memory Impairs Math Learning in Children

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Math anxiety negatively impacts academic performance.
• Processing efficiency theory (PET) suggests math anxiety reduces working memory (WM) capacity.
• Previous research primarily used correlational designs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal relationship between math anxiety, WM, and math learning using an intervention.
• To examine how different levels of math anxiety and WM capacity affect math learning in 5th graders.

Main Methods:

• An intervention study involving 25 fifth graders undergoing multiplication training over 2 weeks.
• Assessed math learning by comparing performance on trained versus untrained problems.
• Analyzed the interplay between math anxiety, visuospatial WM, and learning outcomes.

Main Results:

• Children demonstrated improved speed and accuracy on trained multiplication problems.
• Low math anxiety allowed sufficient WM for learning.
• High math anxiety combined with low visuospatial WM significantly impaired math learning.
• High math anxiety with high WM still allowed for learning, though some resources were diverted.

Conclusions:

• Math anxiety impairs math learning, particularly when WM capacity is low, potentially leading to long-term academic consequences.
• The findings partially support PET, indicating that high math anxiety and low WM are critical for hindering learning.
• Math anxiety affected performance effectiveness (accuracy) more than processing efficiency (speed).