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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Multimedia Battery for Assessment of Cognitive and Basic Skills in Mathematics BM-PROMA

Multimedia Battery for Assessment of Cognitive and Basic Skills in Mathematics BM-PROMA

Published on: August 28, 2021

Spatialization in working memory and its relation to math anxiety.

Jean-Philippe van Dijck^1,2, Wim Fias², Krzysztof Cipora³

¹Department of Applied Psychology, Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Flanders, Belgium.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

|March 11, 2022

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Math anxiety (MA) is linked to how individuals spatially code information in verbal working memory (WM). Organizing sequences left-to-right in WM correlates with lower MA, higher WM capacity, and better math performance.

Keywords:

OPE math anxiety order processing working memory

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Educational Psychology

Background:

Working memory (WM) is crucial for cognitive functions, including math performance.
Math anxiety (MA) may negatively impact WM resources due to rumination and worry.
Existing research suggests MA is associated with lower general verbal and spatial WM capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between math anxiety (MA) and specific spatial coding strategies within verbal working memory (WM).
To explore whether spatial structuring in verbal WM is linked to WM capacity, numerical judgment, and math achievement.

Main Methods:

Participants' math anxiety levels were assessed.
Verbal WM strategies, specifically spatial coding of serial order (e.g., left-to-right organization), were examined.
WM capacity, numerical order judgment, and math scores were measured.

Main Results:

Individuals who spatially coded sequences in verbal WM (left-to-right) exhibited lower math anxiety.
These spatial coders demonstrated higher verbal WM capacity.
Spatial coding in verbal WM was associated with better numerical order judgment and higher math scores.

Conclusions:

Spatial structuring of verbal information in working memory is a significant cognitive correlate of math anxiety.
This finding suggests a potential link between elementary cognitive processes and math anxiety, opening new research avenues.
Understanding these links may inform interventions for math anxiety and performance.