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Math anxiety (MA) and math performance are generally negatively correlated (Barroso et al., 2020; Namkung et al., 2019). However, the mechanisms underlying this negative association remain unclear. According to the Attentional Control Theory (ACT; Eysenck, et al., 2007), anxious individuals experience impaired attentional control during problem solving, which compromises their performance on cognitive tasks. In a sample of 168 elementary and middle school students, the current study used an eye-tracking approach to investigate whether math-anxious students exhibit deficits in their attentional control during a math problem solving task, and whether such attentional control deficits account for the negative association between MA and performance on this math task. Consistent with the ACT, we found that students with higher MA were more likely to engage attention to both task-relevant and task-irrelevant distractors during problem solving, and their enhanced attention to these distractors was associated with their impaired performance on the math task. These findings suggest that the MA-related math performance deficit is partly mediated by impaired attentional control, which is indicated by the maladaptive attentional bias toward distracting information during math problem solving.
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This content will become publicly available on December 4, 2026
Emotion Regulation and Motivation Modulate the Associations Between Math Anxiety, Attention, and Math Performance
Although math anxiety (MA) and math performance are generally negatively correlated (Barroso et al., 2021), several studies reported variability in the strength of this association (Lyons & Beilock, 2012a; Tsui & Mazzocco, 2006; Wang et al., 2015). The present study investigated emotion regulation and motivation as potential mechanisms underlying this heterogeneity, particularly with regard to the attention patterns underlying successful math performance. A sample of 207 elementary and middle school students completed a math problem-solving task, during which their attention was measured using eye-tracking. Students’ trait level and state level emotion regulation and motivation were assessed using self-reports and physiological measures, respectively. Our findings revealed that the use of reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy mitigated attentional interference during math problem-solving, which in turn attenuated performance deficits among students with high MA. In addition, students with high MA exhibited more avoidance of the math problems only if their physiological pattern indicated low state motivation. These findings highlight the importance of enhancing both reappraisal and motivation as potential intervention targets to combat math deficits among students with high MA.
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- PAR ID:
- 10651664
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Psychological Association
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of educational psychology
- ISSN:
- 0022-0663
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- math anxiety emotion regulation motivation eye-tracking psychophysiology
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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