The Relationship Between Math Anxiety And Mathematics Scores Of Students In Elementary School:the Moderation Effect Of Working Memory

Mathematics learning is the main content for students to learn in the primary,and it also the key subject that affects their academic performance.Therefore,the scores of mathematics learning and its influencing factors have been paid much attention by researchers.There are lots of studies about the factors influencing the math scores at home and abroad,including intelligence level,mathematics anxiety,attention,learned helplessness,mathematics learning strategy,working memory and the arithmetic cognitive strategies,etc.Based on the results of previous studies,the main purpose of this paper is to further explore the effects of mathematics anxiety,working memory and arithmetic cognitive strategies on mathematics achievement,as well as explore its work process,and then put forward corresponding educational suggestions.In this study,111 students from grade two and grade three were selected as subjects,adopting the Children Mathematics Anxiety Scale(CMAQ-R),the Wechsler Intelligence Scale,the Working Memory Scale,and the Arithmetic Cognitive Strategy Coding Manual,using SPSS in a variety of statistical methods to investigate the arithmetic cognitive strategies,mathematical anxiety,working memory and the differences between grade and gender in math.On the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics scores,working memory was introduced as a moderator variable to explore the moderating effect of working memory on mathematics anxiety and mathematics scores;The arithmetic cognitive strategy was introduced as an intermediary variable to explore the mediating role of arithmetic cognitive strategies in mathematics anxiety and mathematics scores.Finally the conclusions were as follows:(1)There was no gender difference between lower grade students' mathematics anxiety,working memory,arithmetic cognitive strategies and mathematics scores.(2)Mathematics anxiety has significant influence on mathematics scores,with the rise of the level of mathematics anxiety,the individual's math performance will become worse and worse.(3)As the growth of the age,the lower grade elementary student's working memory span increased,as for their arithmetic cognitive strategies,whether it is a conventional strategy,shortcut strategy or general strategy will be used more and more.(4)Working memory plays an important role in the regulation of mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement.When working memory as a moderator variable having an impact on the relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement,the improvement of mathematics anxiety can have more significantly negative effect on mathematics performance.That means,as the level of mathematics anxiety rises,the larger the working memory span,the better mathematics achievement of students will be.(5)Arithmetic cognitive strategies has no role of mediation between mathematics anxiety and mathematics achievement.After the analysis and discussion of the results,this paper discussed the reason why there was no mediating effect of arithmetic cognitive strategies,and analyzed the relationship between the mathematical anxiety,working memory,arithmetic cognitive strategies and math scores.Finally,several methods were put forward to improve mathematics achievement from mathematics anxiety,arithmetic cognitive strategies and working memory.