Park Daeun, Ramirez Gerardo, Beilock Sian L
Department of Psychology.
J Exp Psychol Appl. 2014 Jun;20(2):103-11. doi: 10.1037/xap0000013. Epub 2014 Apr 7.
Math anxiety is a negative affective reaction to situations involving math. Previous work demonstrates that math anxiety can negatively impact math problem solving by creating performance-related worries that disrupt the working memory needed for the task at hand. By leveraging knowledge about the mechanism underlying the math anxiety-performance relationship, we tested the effectiveness of a short expressive writing intervention that has been shown to reduce intrusive thoughts and improve working memory availability. Students (N = 80) varying in math anxiety were asked to sit quietly (control group) prior to completing difficulty-matched math and word problems or to write about their thoughts and feelings regarding the exam they were about to take (expressive writing group). For the control group, high math-anxious individuals (HMAs) performed significantly worse on the math problems than low math-anxious students (LMAs). In the expressive writing group, however, this difference in math performance across HMAs and LMAs was significantly reduced. Among HMAs, the use of words related to anxiety, cause, and insight in their writing was positively related to math performance. Expressive writing boosts the performance of anxious students in math-testing situations.
数学焦虑是对涉及数学的情境产生的负面情绪反应。先前的研究表明，数学焦虑会通过产生与表现相关的担忧来对数学问题解决产生负面影响，这些担忧会干扰手头任务所需的工作记忆。通过利用关于数学焦虑与表现关系背后机制的知识，我们测试了一种简短的表达性写作干预的有效性，该干预已被证明可以减少侵入性思维并提高工作记忆的可用性。要求数学焦虑程度不同的学生（N = 80）在完成难度匹配的数学和文字问题之前安静地坐着（对照组），或者写下他们对即将参加的考试的想法和感受（表达性写作组）。对于对照组，高数学焦虑个体（HMA）在数学问题上的表现明显比低数学焦虑学生（LMA）差。然而，在表达性写作组中，HMA和LMA在数学成绩上的这种差异显著减小。在HMA中，他们写作中与焦虑、原因和洞察力相关的词汇使用与数学成绩呈正相关。表达性写作能提高焦虑学生在数学测试情境中的表现。
