Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety

Abstract Participants with mathematical anxiety (MA) tend to show particular difficulty in mathematical operations with high working memory (WM) demands compared to operations with lower WM demands. Accordingly, we examined strategy selection to test the cognitive mechanism underlying the observed w...

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Autores principales:	Sarit Ashkenazi, Deema Najjar
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2018
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/448cc6de9f8743e0b0ab1d54493c2d8a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:448cc6de9f8743e0b0ab1d54493c2d8a2021-12-02T16:07:52ZNon-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety10.1038/s41598-018-27763-w2045-2322https://doaj.org/article/448cc6de9f8743e0b0ab1d54493c2d8a2018-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27763-whttps://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Participants with mathematical anxiety (MA) tend to show particular difficulty in mathematical operations with high working memory (WM) demands compared to operations with lower WM demands. Accordingly, we examined strategy selection to test the cognitive mechanism underlying the observed weakness of high MA participants in mathematical operations with high WM demands. We compared two groups of college students with high or low MA, in the solution of simple non-carry addition problems (e.g., 54 + 63) and complex carryover addition problems (e.g., 59 + 63). The results indicated that high MA participants showed particular difficulty in the harder carry condition. Testing the strategy selection mechanism among high MA participants, we found in the carry condition 1) they used the common strategy less often compared to low MA participants and 2) employed unusual strategies more often compared to low MA participants. Therefore, high MA participants were less efficient in their strategy selection, which may be due to weaker spatial representations, numerical difficulties, or less experience solving complex problems. These primitive representations are not adaptive, and can negatively impact performance in math tasks with high WM demands.Sarit AshkenaziDeema NajjarNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Sarit Ashkenazi Deema Najjar Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
description	Abstract Participants with mathematical anxiety (MA) tend to show particular difficulty in mathematical operations with high working memory (WM) demands compared to operations with lower WM demands. Accordingly, we examined strategy selection to test the cognitive mechanism underlying the observed weakness of high MA participants in mathematical operations with high WM demands. We compared two groups of college students with high or low MA, in the solution of simple non-carry addition problems (e.g., 54 + 63) and complex carryover addition problems (e.g., 59 + 63). The results indicated that high MA participants showed particular difficulty in the harder carry condition. Testing the strategy selection mechanism among high MA participants, we found in the carry condition 1) they used the common strategy less often compared to low MA participants and 2) employed unusual strategies more often compared to low MA participants. Therefore, high MA participants were less efficient in their strategy selection, which may be due to weaker spatial representations, numerical difficulties, or less experience solving complex problems. These primitive representations are not adaptive, and can negatively impact performance in math tasks with high WM demands.
format	article
author	Sarit Ashkenazi Deema Najjar
author_facet	Sarit Ashkenazi Deema Najjar
author_sort	Sarit Ashkenazi
title	Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
title_short	Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
title_full	Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
title_fullStr	Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
title_full_unstemmed	Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
title_sort	non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/448cc6de9f8743e0b0ab1d54493c2d8a
work_keys_str_mv	AT saritashkenazi nonadaptivestrategyselectioninadultswithhighmathematicalanxiety AT deemanajjar nonadaptivestrategyselectioninadultswithhighmathematicalanxiety
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Non-adaptive strategy selection in adults with high mathematical anxiety

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