Operation span task's susceptibility to math anxiety: Support from fluid intelligence

This experiment tested possible math anxiety effects on the two most prominent working memory span tasks, the operation span and reading span tasks. Math anxiety effects on the performance of the processing component of the operation span task, which is math based, were found, but not on the processing component of the reading span task, which is reading based. High math anxious individuals were the largest group of individuals that failed to meet the prescribed 85% accuracy threshold of the processing component of the operation span, countering the hypothesis that not meeting the threshold score is due to a lack of motivation. Math anxiety groups did not differ in working memory capacity (i.e., storage component of the operation span task, processing and storage components of the reading span task) or fluid intelligence (i.e., RAPM and PMA number series performance), further supporting theories that high math anxious individuals do not differ from others in working memory capacity and that they should not be removed from experimental analyses due to the failure to meet the prescribed 85% threshold of the processing component of the operation span task.