Department of Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany; Centre for Education Practice Research, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Cognition. 2020 Jul;200:104271. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104271. Epub 2020 May 16.
This study examines the interplay of state- and trait-math anxiety (MA) and core executive functions (CEF) on math achievement in children. According to attention control theory, MA affects the CEF by triggering the inhibition function, so that some working memory (WM) is blocked, thus reducing task processing capacity. However, research on the interplay between MA and CEF in children is rare, and the findings in the literature are inconsistent. In this paper, state- and trait-MA, math achievement, CEF (inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory capacity, global index of CEF) and self-ratings of ADHD symptoms (attention deficits, hyperactivity, impulsiveness) of 646 fourth and fifth grade students (48.1% girls) are assessed. CEF were evaluated with a tablet-based test. The data revealed negative correlations between state-MA and math achievement for all CEF levels and cognitive processes. However, inhibition control functioned as a moderator of the relation between state-MA and math achievement. Children with higher inhibition abilities showed more pronounced negative relations. No moderation effects were identified for working memory capacity and the CEF global index. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between these three CEF and raise questions for future research on the interplay between cognitive and affective factors as predictors of math achievement.
本研究考察了状态和特质数学焦虑（MA）与核心执行功能（CEF）在儿童数学成绩中的相互作用。根据注意控制理论，MA 通过触发抑制功能影响 CEF，从而阻止部分工作记忆（WM），从而降低任务处理能力。然而，关于儿童 MA 和 CEF 相互作用的研究很少，文献中的研究结果也不一致。本文评估了 646 名四年级和五年级学生（48.1%为女生）的状态和特质-MA、数学成绩、CEF（抑制、认知灵活性、工作记忆容量、CEF 总指数）和 ADHD 症状自评（注意力缺陷、多动、冲动）。CEF 通过基于平板电脑的测试进行评估。数据显示，状态-MA 与所有 CEF 水平和认知过程的数学成绩呈负相关。然而，抑制控制功能是状态-MA 和数学成绩之间关系的调节因素。抑制能力较高的儿童表现出更明显的负相关。工作记忆容量和 CEF 总指数没有调节作用。研究结果强调了区分这三种 CEF 的重要性，并为未来关于认知和情感因素相互作用作为数学成绩预测因素的研究提出了问题。
