Table Of ContentMATHEMATICS ANXIETY
Feelings of apprehension and fear brought on by mathematical performance can affect
correct mathematical application and can influence the achievement and future paths of
individuals affected by it. In recent years, math anxiety has become a subject of increasing
interest in both educational and clinical settings. This ground-breaking collection
presents theoretical, educational and psychophysiological perspectives on the widespread
phenomenon of mathematics anxiety.
Featuring contributions from leading international researchers, Mathematics Anxiety
challenges preconceptions and clarifies several crucial areas of research, such as the
distinction between math anxiety from other forms of anxiety (i.e., general or test
anxiety); the ways in which math anxiety has been assessed (e.g. throughout self-report
questionnaires or psychophysiological measures); the need to clarify the direction of the
relationship between math anxiety and mathematics achievement (which causes which).
Offering a re-evaluation of the negative connotations usually associated with math
anxiety and prompting avenues for future research, this book will be invaluable to
academics and students in the psychological and educational sciences, as well as teachers
working with students who are struggling with math anxiety.
Irene C. Mammarella is Associate Professor at the University of Padua, Italy. Her
research interests include the role of working memory and emotional aspects in specific
learning disorders, and other neurodevelopmental disorders. She is the cofounder of a
clinical university centre for neurodevelopmental disorders (LabDA srl) and coauthored
the book Nonverbal learning disabilities (Guilford Press, 2016).
Sara Caviola is a Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, at the School of Psychology,
University of Leeds, UK. She won a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship and spent two
years at the Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge. Her main
interests include analyses of cognitive and emotional underpinnings of mathematical
cognition, in both children and adult populations.
Ann Dowker is University Research Lecturer at the Department of Experimental
Psychology, Oxford University, UK. She has edited and coedited several books, and is
the author of Individual Differences in Arithmetic: Implications for Psychology, Neuroscience and
Education (Psychology Press, 2005; second edition to be published in 2019). She is the lead
researcher on the Catch Up Numeracy intervention project.
MATHEMATICS
ANXIETY
What is Known and What is Still
to be Understood
Edited by Irene C. Mammarella, Sara Caviola
and Ann Dowker
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Irene C. Mammarella, Sara
Caviola and Ann Dowker; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Irene C. Mammarella, Sara Caviola and Ann Dowker to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-19033-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-19039-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-19998-1 (ebk)
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CONTENTS
Preface vii
1 Models of math anxiety 1
Mark H. Ashcraft
2 Different ways to measure math anxiety 20
Krzysztof Cipora, Christina Artemenko and Hans-Christoph Nuerk
3 Psychophysiological correlates of mathematics anxiety 42
Chiara Avancini and Dénes Szűcs
4 Mathematics anxiety and performance 62
Ann Dowker
5 Acquisition, development and maintenance of maths anxiety
in young children 77
Dominic Petronzi, Paul Staples, David Sheffield and Thomas Hunt
6 Mathematics anxiety and working memory: what is the
relationship? 103
Maria Chiara Passolunghi, Marija Živković and Sandra Pellizzoni
7 The different involvement of working memory in math
and test anxiety 126
Ee Lynn Ng and Kerry Lee
vi Contents
8 Math anxiety in children with and without mathematical
difficulties: the role of gender and genetic factors 141
Sara Caviola, Irene C. Mammarella and Yulia Kovas
9 Probing the nature of deficits in math anxiety: drawing
connections between attention and numerical cognition 156
Orly Rubinsten, Hili Eidlin Levy and Lital Daches Cohen
10 Gender stereotypes, anxiety, and math outcomes in adults
and children 178
Carlo Tomasetto
11 The role of parents’ and teachers’ math anxiety in children’s
math learning and attitudes 190
Julianne B. Herts, Sian L. Beilock and Susan C. Levine
Concluding remarks 211
Irene C. Mammarella, Sara Caviola and Ann Dowker
Index 222
PREFACE
During a cold December afternoon, we were discussing a research project related
to mathematical learning and related emotional difficulties, drinking cups of tea
and coffee, when we realized the absence of a handbook entirely dedicated to
this topic. Almost simultaneously we looked at each other (Irene and Sara) and
had the same insight: why not try to edit a book on this topic?
Once we realized that we had decided to follow through on the idea, we
found ourselves lost (deep) in conversation, trying to list, organize and select all
the fundamental topics we thought were worth including in the book. Thus,
we wrote to Ann, who possesses tremendous expertise in this field, and asked
her to join us. Happily, she immediately embraced the project. The final struc-
ture of this book followed on from a symposium that we organized for the first
international conference on Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society held
in Oxford (Sara and Ann) in April 2018, and includes chapters from leading
researchers in psychology, neuroscience and education from all over the world.
There is a shared understanding that learning mathematics involves a com-
plex interplay of cognitive, motivational and emotional processes (Carey, Hill,
Devine, & Szücs, 2016; Dowker, Sarkar, & Looi, 2016; Hill et al., 2016; Mam-
marella, Hill, Devine, Caviola, & Szűcs, 2015). Indeed, mathematical difficulties
may be associated with not only specific mathematical learning disorders but
also domain-general cognitive weaknesses (e.g. phonological memory, working
memory, executive functions) and negative emotions (Maloney & Beilock, 2012;
Vukovic, Kieffer, Bailey, & Harari, 2013). Interest in the interference of these
negative affective factors, usually defined in the literature by the term ‘math-
ematics anxiety’, has grown from the students’ mathematics outcomes observa-
tions: these feelings of apprehension and fear aroused during a mathematical
performance can hamper or even impede its correct execution (Ashcraft & Kirk,
2001; Dowker et al., 2016).
viii P reface
For the domain of mathematics as a whole, long-standing quantitative
research concerning the relationship between students’ math anxiety and their
general mathematical achievement has been carried out, and the literature has
mostly revealed a substantial negative relationship between the two (Ashcraft,
Krause, & Hopko, 2007; Ashcraft & Moore, 2009; Carey et al., 2017; Hem-
bree, 1990; Ma, 1999). In his meta-analysis, Hembree (1990) pointed out that
cognitive-behavioural interventions developed for the treatment of test anxiety
or general anxiety were effective in reducing or eliminating the effects of math
anxiety on mathematics performance. Interventions merely focused on changes
in classroom curricula, relaxation therapy or group counselling were less effec-
tive. Later studies have investigated the effects of more transitory disruptions
involving ‘choking’ in response to threat, and have focused on relieving the
cognitive symptoms of anxiety, and particularly their impact on working mem-
ory resources, with some promising results (Ramirez & Beilock, 2011; Supekar,
Iuculano, Chen, & Menon, 2015).
Since the overall aim of the book is to gain a greater understanding of math
anxiety and, consequently, of ways to prevent or ameliorate the phenomenon,
it is important to obtain converging evidence from as many fields as possible.
Developmental psychologists, educationists, neuroscientists, educational and clin-
ical psychologists, teachers and policymakers often tend to proceed indepen-
dently, sometimes neglecting relevant findings from the research and practice
outside their own disciplines. Just as with mathematical cognition in general,
math anxiety research intersects with a wide array of sub-fields, such as cognitive
and educational psychology, neuroscience and developmental psychology. In this
book, we broadened the perspective, bringing together converging international
researchers working on different areas with the aim to shed light on a) the theo-
retical background of math anxiety, b) the development of this phenomenon in
both typical and atypical populations, c) the main cognitive processes involved
and d) the importance and role of different social contexts. The result is a collec-
tion of eleven essays and constitutes a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art
studies on important facets of math anxiety.
The book begins with two chapters about the theoretical backgrounds and the
psychophysiological consequences of math anxiety. The first chapter, by Mark
H. Ashcraft, provides a comprehensive summary of four major approaches to
understanding the phenomenon and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of
each of them. The chapter can be viewed as an overview and introduction to
the in-depth chapters that comprise the entire volume. It is followed by Cipora,
Artemenko and Nuerk’s chapter, which presents an exhaustive review of math
anxiety measurement techniques, and by the chapter of Avancini and Szűcs, who
discuss how math anxiety induces physiological reactions within individuals, and
how psychophysiological measures may offer new ways to assess this phenom-
enon without relying on self-report questionnaires.
The subsequent group of chapters discuss the development features of math
anxiety. In particular, Ann Dowker points out the relationships and differences
Preface ix
between math anxiety and other related constructs (e.g. general- and test-anxiety,
and attitudes to mathematics), and discusses reasons for the well-established
negative relationship between math anxiety and maths performance. Dominic
Petronzi and colleagues, after discussing issues regarding math anxiety measure-
ment, propose a review of the literature surrounding the onset of math anxiety,
focusing on several factors that may influence the development of such feelings
of apprehension: e.g. negative evaluation from peers and teachers, pessimistic
attitudes, low self-efficacy and reduced motivation.
Another important aspect involves the cognitive processes, especially work-
ing memory processes often associated with math anxiety. Two chapters specifi-
cally address this topic, providing a detailed summary of the current research.
Passolunghi and colleagues discuss the relationship between math anxiety and
mathematical performance by reviewing studies of both children and adult
populations. The relationship between math anxiety and mathematics achieve-
ment is further analysed by Ng and Lee. In their chapter, they focused on not
only math anxiety but also test anxiety, and discuss the overlap between these
two constructs. A different insight is offered by the subsequent chapter, where
Rubinsten and colleagues, after defining the meaning of attentional bias, report
the most recent studies aimed at investigating whether math anxiety is character-
ized by an attentional bias toward math-related stimuli.
Caviola, Mammarella and Kovas give an overview of the literature in not
only typical but also atypical populations, and in particular on children with
mathematics difficulties or developmental dyscalculia. Their chapter tries to
provide a fresh framework of the individual differences (considering both
genetic and environmental factors) involved in young children’s low math-
ematics performance. In the following chapter, Tommasetto presents the most
recent research on how gender differences in math anxiety are moderated by
gender stereotypes (and self-concept beliefs). Finally, the last chapter, by Herts,
Beilock and Levine, provides a detailed description about the social determi-
nants of children’s and adolescents’ math anxiety by examining their parents’
and teachers’ math achievements and attitudes. Parents’ and teachers’ math
anxiety is conceptualized as a moderator, determining the strength and direc-
tion of the relationships between children’s math anxiety and math education
outcomes.
Thus, the purpose of this book is to stimulate theoretical reflection on the
ways in which math anxiety can influence the achievement and consequently the
future paths of individuals. Findings with regard to gender differences, cogni-
tive networks, types of assessment and psychophysiological correlates may help
generate a better definition of math anxiety and clarify what is known about it.
In this respect, a novel contribution of this book is to bring together different
research fields into one single volume. In doing so, we also hope to challenge
preconceptions about math anxiety and offer a re-evaluation of the negative con-
notations usually associated with the term.
September 2018
