Estimation Strategy Selection Is Modulated by Snapshot Emotional Priming, but Not Math Anxiety

Abstract

The present study explored the role of snapshot emotional priming and math anxiety in estimation strategy selection. Participants were asked to complete a two-digit multiplication estimation task (e.g., 34 × 67) under explicit (Experiment 1) and implicit (Experiment 2) snapshot emotional priming conditions by freely choosing to use DU (down-up, e.g., doing 30 × 70 = 2100 for 34 × 67) or UD (up-down, e.g., doing 40 × 60 = 2400 for 34 × 67) strategies to arrive as close as possible to the correct answer. In Experiment 1, individuals’ estimation performance was positively influenced by explicit happy priming (shorter RT (reaction time)), while not affected by explicit fear priming. In Experiment 2, individuals’ estimation ACC (accuracy) when using the UD strategy was negatively affected by both implicit happy and fear priming, but their RT when using DU and UD strategies was positively impacted by implicit happy priming. In both experiments, the correlations between math anxiety and estimation performance (ACC, RT, and strategy selection adaptivity) was not significant. The present study suggests that fear priming was not always detrimental to individuals’ estimation performance, and happy priming did not always universally improve individuals’ estimation performance. Additionally, estimation strategy selection was not influenced by math anxiety.

Are There Age-Related Differences in Effects of Positive and Negative Emotions in Arithmetic?

“…We found poorer performance under emotionally negative and positive conditions than under the neutral condition, replicating previous findings (Fabre & Lemaire, 2019; Framorando & Gendolla, 2018, 2019; Kleinsorge, 2007, 2009; Lallement & Lemaire, 2021; Lemaire, 2021b; Liu et al, 2021; Schimmack, 2005; Zhu et al, 2021, 2022). Most of these studies have explained these deleterious effects by assuming that emotions capture participants’ attentional resources, leading them to be distracted away from the arithmetic task and to perform more poorly.…”

“…We found poorer performance under emotionally negative and positive conditions than under the neutral condition, replicating previous findings (Fabre & Lemaire, 2019;Framorando & Gendolla, 2018Kleinsorge, 2007Kleinsorge, , 2009Lallement & Lemaire, 2021;Lemaire, 2021b;Liu et al, 2021;Schimmack, 2005;Zhu et al, 2021Zhu et al, , 2022.…”

“…Also, given that age-related positivity biases have been found in other domains undergoing less or no age-related decline (e.g., metacognition, Geurten & Lemaire, 2022; autobiographical memories, Kennedy et al, 2004), the present data do not necessarily mean that age-related positivity biases would never be observed in arithmetic. Using emotion induction procedures that have shown in the past to yield improved performance under positive emotion conditions and poorer performance under negative emotion conditions in young adults (e.g., Liu et al, 2021; Zhu et al, 2021, 2022) may reveal age-related positivity biases if such biases exist in arithmetic.…”

“…This study investigates how emotions influence arithmetic performance and whether this influence changes during aging. A few studies found that emotions affect arithmetic performance (Fabre & Lemaire, 2019; Framorando & Gendolla, 2018, 2019; Kleinsorge, 2007, 2009; Lallement & Lemaire, 2021; Liu et al, 2021; Schimmack, 2005; Zhu et al, 2021, 2022). Yet, only one study compared effects of negative emotions (Lallement & Lemaire, 2021), and no studies compared effects of positive emotions on young and older adults’ arithmetic performance.…”

“…Surprisingly, few studies have examined these emotion-cognition relations in arithmetic. The few experiments using emotion induction procedures found mostly deleterious effects of emotions on arithmetic performance (Fabre & Lemaire, 2019; Framorando & Gendolla, 2018, 2019; Kleinsorge, 2007, 2009; Lallement & Lemaire, 2021; Lemaire, 2021b; Liu et al, 2021; Schimmack, 2005; Zhu et al, 2021, 2022). Researchers proposed that effects of emotions on arithmetic performance occur via attentional mechanisms.…”