Emotion Regulation Modulates the Association Between Math Anxiety and Attention Distribution During Math Problem Solving

• In Event: Understanding How Math Anxiety Develops, Operates, and Is Better Treated Using Multi-Method Approaches

Abstract

While students with higher math anxiety (MA) generally exhibited lower math achievement, some high MA students exhibited resilience and achieved commendable learning outcomes (Lyons & Beilock, 2012; Wang et al., 2015). However, the specific mechanism underlying how high MA students remain resilient against the impact of MA remains unknown. The Attention Control Theory suggests that anxiety induces maladaptive attention to irrelevant stimuli, which leads to low performance efficiency (Eysenck et al., 2007). A recent study supported this view and showed that high MA students were more likely to engage in distracting stimuli during math problem solving (Li et al., 2023).
Previous studies point to effective emotion regulation as a possible mechanism that allows high MA students to maintain high performance despite their MA (Lyons & Beilock, 2012). However, several critical questions remain unaddressed. What emotion regulation strategies are effective at mitigating the negative impact of MA on problem solving? Further, are these strategies effective at alleviating the maladaptive attention pattern exhibited by high MA students? Addressing these questions will critically advance our knowledge about how to engage attention on task during math problem solving. The present study investigated whether habitual use of certain emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) and cardiovascular responses, as indicators of real-time emotion regulation, moderated the associations between MA and visual attention during math problem solving.
A sample of 181 third to sixth graders participated in the study. Students completed the Problem Verification Task (PVT), which consisted of 132 mental arithmetic questions (equation, e.g., 3 + 13 = 26). Students evaluated whether each equation was correct or incorrect within 10 seconds. Each question was randomly displayed with a distractor either above or below it. Eye movement and cardiovascular activities were recorded during the baseline and the PVT (MindWare Technologies LTD, 2011; SR Research, Mississauga, ON, Canada). High frequency heart rate variability (HRV) and RZ interval were used to respectively capture parasympathetic and sympathetic cardiac activity. They have frequently been used as a correlate of emotion regulation (HRV; Mather & Thayer, 2018) and mental effort during cognitive tasks (RZ; Silvia et al., 2020). Students self-reported their math anxiety and emotion regulation strategies (Chiu & Henry, 1990; Gullone & Taffe, 2012).
Results showed that reappraisal and RZ interacted with MA to predict visual attention to equation and distractor (Table 1). Specifically, MA was more strongly positively associated with attention to the distractor at lower levels of reappraisal (Table 2). In addition, higher MA was associated with more visual attention towards the equation among students with low task RZ (i.e., high mental effort). In contrast, higher MA was associated with more avoidance of the equation at high task RZ (i.e., low mental effort; Table 2).
The present study underlines the importance of self-regulatory systems in regulating negative emotional experiences during math problem solving. Intervention efforts should focus on enhancing adaptive emotion regulation strategies like reappraisal and supporting the use of cardiovascular biofeedback practices to mitigate the adverse effects of MA on math learning.

Authors

• Tianyu Li, Austin Peay State University

• Anjali Chaudhary, Texas A&M University

• Zhe Wang, Texas A&M University