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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Aug 24, 2025

Assessing Pupil-linked Changes in Locus Coeruleus-mediated Arousal Elicited by Trigeminal Stimulation
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Mathematical and Negative Information Are Similarly Processed: Pupil Dilation as an Indicator.

Lilach Layzer Yavin1,2, Adi Shechter1,2, Orly Rubinsten1,2

  • 1Department of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.

Journal of Intelligence
|October 24, 2022
PubMed
Summary

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Math-related words trigger a significant physiological response, increasing pupil dilation similarly to negative emotional stimuli. This finding offers new insights into the cognitive and emotional processing of STEM information.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Educational Psychology

Background:

  • Emotional perception of math impacts attitudes and career choices in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
  • Understanding these emotional responses is crucial for STEM education and professional development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the physiological response to math-related words.
  • To compare pupil dilation caused by math-related words versus emotionally negative and neutral words.

Main Methods:

  • A lexical decision task (LDT) was employed with 30 adult participants.
  • Pupil dilation, a measure of sympathetic nervous system arousal, was recorded.
  • Stimuli included math-related, negative valence, and neutral words.
Keywords:
cognitive effortemotional valencemathematicspupil dilationsemantical processing

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Main Results:

  • Pupillary responses indicated emotional valence sensitivity.
  • Math-related words elicited greater pupil dilation than neutral words.
  • Negative valence words also caused increased pupil dilation compared to neutral words, similar to math words.

Conclusions:

  • Math-related stimuli evoke a physiological arousal response comparable to negative emotional stimuli.
  • Pupillary response is a viable tool for studying cognitive and emotional effort in processing math information.
  • Findings have implications for educators and leaders in STEM fields.