Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology (Quantitative Psychology Section), Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2024 Oct;1540(1):200-210. doi: 10.1111/nyas.15216. Epub 2024 Sep 19.
We examined whether math anxiety is related to a response inhibition deficit and, if so, whether it is a domain-specific inhibition deficit in numerical tasks or a general inhibition deficit. Behavioral performance and electroencephalogram activity were recorded while 28 highly math-anxious (HMA) and 28 low math-anxious (LMA) individuals performed both a numerical and a non-numerical Go/Nogo task. In the numerical task, single-digit numbers were presented, and participants were asked to press a button if the number was even. In the non-numerical task, letters were presented, and the button had to be pressed if the letter was a vowel. Nogo trials were answered less accurately and elicited larger Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3 than Go trials in both tasks and both groups. Importantly, behavioral and brain response differences between tasks were only found in the HMA group. First, they were more error-prone in numerical Nogo than in non-numerical Nogo trials; and second, their Nogo-N2 and N2d (Nogo-Go difference) were smaller in the numerical task than in the non-numerical task. No differences were found in the LMA group. These results suggest that HMA individuals' response inhibition is impaired specifically when dealing with numbers, which could contribute to their low achievement in math tasks.
我们研究了数学焦虑是否与反应抑制缺陷有关，如果是，那么它是数字任务中的特定领域抑制缺陷还是一般抑制缺陷。在 28 名高度数学焦虑（HMA）和 28 名低度数学焦虑（LMA）个体执行数字和非数字 Go/Nogo 任务时，记录了他们的行为表现和脑电图活动。在数字任务中，呈现一位数，参与者如果数字是偶数就按下按钮。在非数字任务中，呈现字母，如果字母是元音，就按下按钮。与 Go 试验相比，在两个任务和两个组中，Nogo 试验的准确性较低，且诱发的 Nogo-N2 和 Nogo-P3 较大。重要的是，仅在 HMA 组中发现了任务之间的行为和大脑反应差异。首先，他们在数字 Nogo 试验中比在非数字 Nogo 试验中更容易出错；其次，他们在数字任务中的 Nogo-N2 和 N2d（Nogo-Go 差异）小于非数字任务。在 LMA 组中未发现差异。这些结果表明，HMA 个体在处理数字时的反应抑制受损，这可能导致他们在数学任务中的低成就。
