Mielicki Marta K, Mbarki Rahma, Wang Jinjing Jenny
Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ, United States.
Department of Psychology, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, New Brunswick, NJ, United States.
Front Psychol. 2024 Mar 5;15:1175591. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1175591. eCollection 2024.
A large body of work has identified a core sense of number supported by the Approximate Number System (ANS) that is present in infancy and across species. Although it is commonly assumed that the ANS directly processes perceptual input and is relatively independent from affective factors, some evidence points at a correlation between ANS performance and math anxiety. However, the evidence is mixed. We tested whether giving participants active control in completing a numerical task would change the relationship between math anxiety on performance.
Adult participants (N = 103) completed a novel four-alternative-forced-choice non-symbolic numerical comparison task. In a repeated-measures design, participants either passively viewed different dot arrays or actively chose to view each array (i.e., active information-seeking) before deciding on the largest quantity. Participants also provided confidence judgments during the passive version of the task.
We replicated the ratio-dependent signature in participants' accuracy in both the passive and active versions of the task using this novel paradigm, as well as in trial-level confidence judgments and information-seeking behavior. Participants' self-reported math anxiety significantly correlated with their accuracy on the passive version of the task. Critically, the correlation disappeared in the active version of the task. Gender also emerged as a predictor of confidence judgments and a moderator of the effect of task on overall accuracy and the effect of active information seeking on accuracy in the active version of the task. Exploratory analysis of estimated Weber Fraction suggests that these results may be driven by auxiliary factors instead of changes in ANS acuity.
These findings have implications for understanding the relationship between math anxiety and performance on numerical tasks.
大量研究已经确定了一种由近似数字系统(ANS)支持的核心数字感,这种数字感在婴儿期就已存在且跨物种存在。尽管人们通常认为ANS直接处理感知输入且相对独立于情感因素,但一些证据表明ANS表现与数学焦虑之间存在关联。然而,证据并不一致。我们测试了让参与者在完成数字任务时拥有主动控制权是否会改变数学焦虑与表现之间的关系。
成年参与者(N = 103)完成了一项新颖的四选一强制选择非符号数字比较任务。在重复测量设计中,参与者要么被动观看不同的点阵,要么在决定最大数量之前主动选择观看每个点阵(即主动寻求信息)。参与者在任务的被动版本中还提供了信心判断。
我们使用这种新颖的范式在任务的被动和主动版本中,以及在试验水平的信心判断和信息寻求行为中,复制了参与者准确性中的比率依赖特征。参与者自我报告的数学焦虑与他们在任务被动版本中的准确性显著相关。关键的是,这种相关性在任务的主动版本中消失了。性别也成为信心判断的一个预测因素,并且在任务的主动版本中是任务对总体准确性影响以及主动信息寻求对准确性影响的一个调节因素。对估计韦伯分数的探索性分析表明,这些结果可能是由辅助因素驱动的,而不是ANS敏锐度的变化。
这些发现对于理解数学焦虑与数字任务表现之间的关系具有启示意义。