The relationships among working memory, math anxiety, and performance.
Individuals with high math anxiety demonstrated smaller working memory spans, especially when assessed with a computation-based span task. This reduced working memory capacity led to a pronounced increase in reaction time and errors when mental addition was performed concurrently with a memory load task. The effects of the reduction also generalized to a working memory-intensive transformation task. Overall, the results demonstrated that an individual difference variable, math anxiety, affects on-line performance in math-related tasks and that this effect is a transitory disruption of working memory. The authors consider a possible mechanism underlying this effect--disruption of central executive processes--and suggest that individual difference variables like math anxiety deserve greater empirical attention, especially on assessments of working memory capacity and functioning.
Ashcraft
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Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115, USA. m.ashcraft@popmail.csuohio.edu
Kirk
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D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D011939:Mental Recall; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time