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Math Anxiety and Working Memory Updating: Difficulties in Retrieving Numerical Information From Working Memory.
Santiago Pelegrina1, M José Justicia-Galiano1, M Eva Martín-Puga1
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Educational Sciences, University of Jaén, Jaén, Spain.
Frontiers in Psychology
|April 25, 2020
Summary
Math anxiety is linked to poorer working memory (WM) updating performance. Individuals with math anxiety showed slower speeds and more errors, particularly when retrieving information from WM.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Math anxiety is a prevalent issue affecting academic performance.
- Working memory (WM) is crucial for complex cognitive tasks, including mathematics.
- The specific impact of math anxiety on WM updating remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between math anxiety and working memory updating.
- To examine how math anxiety affects the retrieval and substitution components of WM updating.
Main Methods:
- 114 university students completed math anxiety assessments and WM updating tasks.
- WM updating tasks varied in retrieval and substitution demands.
- Math anxiety was measured twice to ensure reliability.
Main Results:
- A significant relationship was found between math anxiety scores and WM updating performance.
- Math anxious individuals exhibited slower response times and increased error rates.
- Errors were particularly pronounced in tasks requiring information retrieval from WM.
Conclusions:
- Math anxiety impairs the efficiency of accessing numerical information in working memory.
- Individuals with math anxiety may face difficulties in math tasks demanding WM retrieval.
- Targeting math anxiety could potentially improve cognitive performance in numerical tasks.
Keywords:
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