The Neural Mechanism Of Mathematical Anxiety Affecting Mathematical Processing

Mathematical anxiety can affect the performance of individual mathematical tasks,and exploring the cognitive neural mechanism of this effect is helpful to the improvement of relevant cognitive function and academic achievement.At present,there are two hypotheses about how mathematical anxiety affects mathematical processing.The working memory hypothesis holds that the processing of mathematical anxiety by individuals will consume a great amount of working memory resources,thus affecting mathematical task processing.The attention hypothesis holds that individuals with high math anxiety will spend more cognitive resources to suppress negative emotions,resulting in increased stimulus-driven attention and decreased top-down attention.In this paper,EEG technique is used to explore the cognitive neural mechanism underlying mathematical anxiety in math-related tasks.By focusing on the investigation of numerical calculation and quantitative perception abilities under the framework of attention control theory,this paper reveals the cognitive neural mechanism of the influence of mathematical anxiety on mathematical processing and clarifies whether attention deficit is present in mathematical anxiety.In study one,we recorded the neuroelectrophysiological signals throughout the process of numerical problem-solving,including both the prediction phase and the resolution phase.The results showed that after controlling for math scores,individuals with higher math anxiety showed stronger oscillation energy in the ? band and larger P300 amplitude during the prediction phase as well as stronger oscillation energy in the ? band during the solution phase.In study two,we compared the neuroelectrophysiological responses of high and low math anxiety individuals during approximate quantity processing.After matching the levels of general cognitive abilities and trait anxiety,we found no significant difference between the two groups in behavioral accuracy and response time.However,individuals with high math anxiety had smaller amplitude of P2 component in the expected stage and larger amplitude of P2 p component in the task stage.The P2 component of the expected stage is negatively correlated with the P2 p amplitude of the task stage.Individuals with high math anxiety had lower energy amplitudes in the delta band(1-3 Hz)and in the delta band(4Hz)at about 200 ms after stimulus presentation.The results of the two studies showed that there were neuroelectrophysiological differences between high and low mathematical anxiety in numerical calculation and quantitative processing,and that the neural mechanism underlying the influence of mathematical anxiety on mathematical processing was related to the attention deficit associated with mathematical anxiety.The first study found that individuals with high math anxiety spent more attention resources in the prediction stage before the task and demonstrated greater attention bias to numerical calculation during numerical problemsolving.The second study provided EEG evidence for defects in approximate quantitative processing among individuals with mathematical anxiety,which has great theoretical significance for the study of the causes of approximate quantitative processing defects in mathematical anxiety,and showed that such defects are related to the allocation of attention resources.Our research supports the attention hypothesis by showing that during numerical calculation,individuals with high math anxiety spent a great amount attention resources to overcome anxiety,demonstrating difficulties in topdown attention suppression,and greater attentional bias to numerical calculations.In addition,during quantitative processing,the neuroelectrophysiological differences between the individuals with high and low mathematical anxiety in the perception of lattice quantity may also be affected by the difference in attention resources.