Tang Jiuqing, Su Yun, Yao Yu'e, Peyre Hugo, Guez Ava, Zhao Jingjing
School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China.
Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (ENS, EHESS, CNRS), Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL University, Paris, France.
Front Psychol. 2021 Feb 19;12:615601. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.615601. eCollection 2021.
There is a growing consensus that math anxiety highly correlates with trait anxiety and that the emotional component elicited by math anxiety affects math performance. Yet few studies have examined the impact of "specific math anxiety" (high math anxiety and low other kinds of anxiety) on math performance and the underlying physiological and affective mechanism. The present study examines the mediation effect of heart rate variability-an affective measurement indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)-in the relationship between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. A total of 386 junior high school students completed a self-reported questionnaire to measure their anxiety level. Among this sample, 29 individuals with specific math anxiety (high math anxiety and low reading and trait anxiety), 29 with specific reading anxiety (high reading anxiety and low math and trait anxiety), 24 with specific trait anxiety (high trait anxiety and low math and reading anxiety), and 22 controls (low math, trait and reading anxiety) were selected to participate in an arithmetic task and a reading task while RSA was recorded when they performed the tasks. Results revealed that individuals with specific math anxiety showed lower RSA and longer reaction time than the other three groups in the arithmetic task. Regression and mediation analyses further revealed that RSA mediated the relation between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. The present study provides the first account of evidence for the affective hypothesis of specific math anxiety and suggests that affective responses may be an important mechanism underlying the detrimental effect of specific math anxiety on math performance.
越来越多的人达成共识，即数学焦虑与特质焦虑高度相关，并且数学焦虑引发的情绪成分会影响数学成绩。然而，很少有研究考察“特定数学焦虑”（高数学焦虑和低其他类型焦虑）对数学成绩的影响以及潜在的生理和情感机制。本研究考察心率变异性（一种由呼吸性窦性心律失常（RSA）索引的情感测量指标）在特定数学焦虑与算术速度之间关系中的中介作用。共有386名初中生完成了一份自我报告问卷以测量他们的焦虑水平。在这个样本中，选取了29名有特定数学焦虑的个体（高数学焦虑和低阅读及特质焦虑）、29名有特定阅读焦虑的个体（高阅读焦虑和低数学及特质焦虑）、24名有特定特质焦虑的个体（高特质焦虑和低数学及阅读焦虑）以及22名对照组个体（低数学、特质和阅读焦虑）参与一项算术任务和一项阅读任务，同时在他们执行任务时记录RSA。结果显示，在算术任务中，有特定数学焦虑的个体比其他三组表现出更低的RSA和更长的反应时间。回归和中介分析进一步表明，RSA介导了特定数学焦虑与算术速度之间的关系。本研究首次为特定数学焦虑的情感假设提供了证据，并表明情感反应可能是特定数学焦虑对数学成绩产生不利影响的重要潜在机制。
