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Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?

A negative relationship between mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics performance is well documented. One suggested explanation for this relationship is that MA interferes with the cognitive processes needed when solving mathematics problems. A demand for using more cognitive effort (e.g., when p...

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Autores principales: Throndsen, Terje Ulv, Lindskog, Marcus, Niemivirta, Markku, Mononen, Riikka
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35752948
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12852
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author Throndsen, Terje Ulv
Lindskog, Marcus
Niemivirta, Markku
Mononen, Riikka
author_facet Throndsen, Terje Ulv
Lindskog, Marcus
Niemivirta, Markku
Mononen, Riikka
author_sort Throndsen, Terje Ulv
collection PubMed
description A negative relationship between mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics performance is well documented. One suggested explanation for this relationship is that MA interferes with the cognitive processes needed when solving mathematics problems. A demand for using more cognitive effort (e.g., when performing harder mathematics problems), can be traced as an increase in pupil dilation during the performance. However, we lack knowledge of how MA affects this relationship between the problem difficulty and cognitive effort. This study investigated, for the first time, if MA moderates the effect of arithmetic (i.e., multiplication) problem difficulty on cognitive effort. Thirty‐four university students from Norway completed multiplication tasks, including three difficulty levels of problems, while their cognitive effort was also measured by means of pupil dilation using an eye tracker. Further, the participants reported their MA using a questionnaire, and arithmetic competence, general intelligence, and working memory were measured with paper‐pencil tasks. A linear mixed model analysis showed that the difficulty level of the multiplication problems affected the cognitive effort so that the pupil dilated more with harder multiplication problems. However, we did not find a moderating effect of MA on cognitive effort, when controlling for arithmetic competence, general intelligence, and working memory. This suggests that MA does not contribute to cognitive effort when solving multiplication problems.
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spelling pubmed-97963842022-12-30 Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort? Throndsen, Terje Ulv Lindskog, Marcus Niemivirta, Markku Mononen, Riikka Scand J Psychol Cognition and Neurosciences A negative relationship between mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics performance is well documented. One suggested explanation for this relationship is that MA interferes with the cognitive processes needed when solving mathematics problems. A demand for using more cognitive effort (e.g., when performing harder mathematics problems), can be traced as an increase in pupil dilation during the performance. However, we lack knowledge of how MA affects this relationship between the problem difficulty and cognitive effort. This study investigated, for the first time, if MA moderates the effect of arithmetic (i.e., multiplication) problem difficulty on cognitive effort. Thirty‐four university students from Norway completed multiplication tasks, including three difficulty levels of problems, while their cognitive effort was also measured by means of pupil dilation using an eye tracker. Further, the participants reported their MA using a questionnaire, and arithmetic competence, general intelligence, and working memory were measured with paper‐pencil tasks. A linear mixed model analysis showed that the difficulty level of the multiplication problems affected the cognitive effort so that the pupil dilated more with harder multiplication problems. However, we did not find a moderating effect of MA on cognitive effort, when controlling for arithmetic competence, general intelligence, and working memory. This suggests that MA does not contribute to cognitive effort when solving multiplication problems. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022-06-26 2022-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9796384/ /pubmed/35752948 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12852 Text en © 2022 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology published by Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Cognition and Neurosciences
Throndsen, Terje Ulv
Lindskog, Marcus
Niemivirta, Markku
Mononen, Riikka
Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
title Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
title_full Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
title_fullStr Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
title_full_unstemmed Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
title_short Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
title_sort does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?
topic Cognition and Neurosciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9796384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35752948
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12852
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