Attention Patterns During Math Problem Solving in Math Anxious Children: An Eye Tracking Study

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Attention, Learning, Memory

Abstract

Math anxiety (MA) refers to the apprehension or fear in individuals when faced with a math problem (Chiu & Henry, 1990). Due to the vital role math plays in students’ learning, it is important to understand the ways in which MA affects individuals’ math performance. It has been argued that MA competes for cognitive resources such as attention during problem solving, which then results in impaired math performance (Suarez-Pellicioni et al, 2014). However, the mechanism underlying MA-related attention deficit during problem solving is unclear. One possible mechanism underlying MA-related attention deficit is attention avoidance. Students may avoid engaging with task-relevant threatening information, such as the to-be-solved math problems. Another possible mechanism is maintenance, which refers to difficulties disengaging from threatening but task-irrelevant information (Eysenck et al., 2007; Moggs & Bradley, 2002), such as time pressure during a timed task. These two mechanisms can be manifested, respectively, through less attention on problem solving (avoidance) or more attention on threatening but less pertinent stimuli (maintenance). The present study sought to investigate these two possible mechanisms underlying MA-related attention deficit during math problem solving.
This study analyzed the gaze attention using eye tracking technology in 124 students from 4th to 6th grade. Students’ gaze attention data were collected while they were performing a problem verification task (Figure 1). Each student had ten seconds to decide if each of the 132 math expressions was correct or incorrect. In half of the trials, a timer was presented to indicate the amount of time left for each problem (i.e., threatening task-irrelevant condition). A rotating star completely irrelevant to the task was presented in the remaining trials (non-threatening task-irrelevant condition) to serve as a control condition. Students’ MA was measured by student self-report (Chiu & Henry, 1990).
A linear regression model examined whether MA predicted percent of fixation counts, percent of dwell time, and run count in each of the two areas of interest (area 1: equation; area 2: distractor being either a timer or a star) across all trials, controlling for age, sex, grade, and performance accuracy (Table 1). Results revealed that students with different levels of MA did not differ in the percent of fixation counts, percent of dwell time, and run count in the equation area. Additionally, compared to students with lower MA, students with higher MA had higher percent of fixations counts, higher percent of dwell time, and a trend for higher run count in the distractor area for the timer condition, but not the star condition.
These findings support that notion that the underlying mechanism regarding MA-related attention deficit is maintenance. This suggests that highly math anxious students may experience difficulties disengaging from threatening task-irrelevant, but not nonthreatening task-irrelevant, information during math problem solving. Although students with different levels of MA did not differ on the total amount of attention engaged in the math problems per se, continuous attention toward problem solving was more disrupted by repetitively checking the threatening task-irrelevant information in highly math anxious students.

Authors

• Sierra Shanafelt, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Tianyu Li, Austin Peay State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michaela Quintero, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Leslie Monique Hasty, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zhe Wang, Texas A&M University - College Station
  Non-Presenting Author