Daker Richard J, Gattas Sylvia U, Necka Elizabeth A, Green Adam E, Lyons Ian M
Department of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2023 Mar 21;8(1):6. doi: 10.1038/s41539-023-00156-z.
Math-anxious people consistently underperform in math. The most widely accepted explanation for why this underperformance occurs is that math-anxious people experience heightened anxiety when faced with math, and this in-the-moment anxiety interferes with performance. Surprisingly, this explanation has not been tested directly. Here, using both self-report and physiological indices of anxiety, we directly test how much in-the-moment anxiety explains math-anxious underperformance. Results indicate that in-the-moment anxiety indeed explains why math-anxious people underperform-but only partially, suggesting a need to seriously consider alternative mechanisms. Results also showed that while some highly math-anxious individuals-those with high levels of heart rate variability-experienced less in-the-moment anxiety, they nevertheless performed no better at math. For these individuals, math-anxious underperformance must occur for reasons unrelated to in-the-moment anxiety. More broadly, our findings point to substantial individual heterogeneity in the mechanisms underlying math-anxious underperformance. Accounting for this mechanistic heterogeneity may prove vital for optimally boosting math performance in math-anxious individuals.
有数学焦虑的人在数学方面的表现一直较差。对于这种表现不佳的原因，最被广泛接受的解释是，有数学焦虑的人在面对数学时会经历更高的焦虑，而这种即时焦虑会干扰表现。令人惊讶的是，这一解释尚未得到直接验证。在此，我们使用焦虑的自我报告和生理指标，直接测试即时焦虑在多大程度上解释了有数学焦虑者的表现不佳。结果表明，即时焦虑确实解释了有数学焦虑的人表现不佳的原因——但只是部分原因，这表明有必要认真考虑其他机制。结果还表明，虽然一些数学焦虑程度很高的人——那些心率变异性高的人——经历的即时焦虑较少，但他们在数学方面的表现并没有更好。对于这些人来说，有数学焦虑导致的表现不佳肯定是由与即时焦虑无关的原因造成的。更广泛地说，我们的研究结果表明，在有数学焦虑导致表现不佳的潜在机制方面存在很大的个体差异。考虑到这种机制上的异质性可能对最佳提高有数学焦虑个体的数学成绩至关重要。
