title: Is Math Anxiety Always Bad for Math Learning? The Role of Math Motivation.
abstract: The linear relations between math anxiety and math cognition have been frequently studied. However, the relations between anxiety and performance on complex cognitive tasks have been repeatedly demonstrated to follow a curvilinear fashion. In the current studies, we aimed to address the lack of attention given to the possibility of such complex interplay between emotion and cognition in the math-learning literature by exploring the relations among math anxiety, math motivation, and math cognition. In two samples-young adolescent twins and adult college students-results showed inverted-U relations between math anxiety and math performance in participants with high intrinsic math motivation and modest negative associations between math anxiety and math performance in participants with low intrinsic math motivation. However, this pattern was not observed in tasks assessing participants' nonsymbolic and symbolic number-estimation ability. These findings may help advance the understanding of mathematics-learning processes and provide important insights for treatment programs that target improving mathematics-learning experiences and mathematical skills.
authors.affiliation: Center for Gerontology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University wangzhe@vt.edu.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
authors.forename: Sarah L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Lukowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University.
authors.forename: Sara A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Hart
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario.
authors.forename: Ian M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Lyons
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Science, Case Western Reserve University.
authors.forename: Lee A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Cognitive Investigations and Behavioural Genetics, Tomsk State University Psychology Department, Goldsmiths, University of London MRC Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.
authors.forename: Yulia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kovas
authors.affiliation: Institute of Child Development and the Center for Early Education and Development, University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Michèle M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mazzocco
authors.affiliation: MRC Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Plomin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University.
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Petrill
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics / Q000193:education*; D011340:Problem Solving; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Yerkes-Dodson law; math anxiety; math cognition; math motivation