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Mathematics anxiety

Mathematics anxiety is an unpleasant and stressful feeling of apprehension that arises in some people when dealing with mathematical situations. It severely affects a person’s motivation and ability to engage with numerical and mathematical activities, and thus has serious long-term consequences.

Ruggero De Agostini’s PhD project investigated two questions related to mathematics anxiety:

The relationship between mathematics anxiety and working memory

In university students, the study investigated which aspects of working memory - visual spatial working memory, verbal working memory, central executive - were affected by mathematics anxiety and whether this depended on whether students are in a maths-related situation or not.

A longitudinal study followed pupils in grade 7 (aged 11-13 years) and investigated whether their working memory and mathematics anxiety measured at the beginning of the school year affected their development of mathematics anxiety and mathematical performance over the school year.

How to measure mathematics anxiety best

Most studies on mathematics anxiety rely on self-report questionnaires. Participants are asked to indicate how anxious, from 'not anxious at all' to 'very anxious', they would feel in a range of situations. Ruggero investigated whether heart rate variability can be used as an objective measure of participants’ current level of mathematical anxiety.