Learning to relax: Evaluating four brief interventions for overcoming the negative emotions accompanying math anxiety

Brunyé, Tad T.; Mahoney, Caroline R.; Giles, Grace E.; Rapp, David N.; Taylor, Holly A.; Kanarek, Robin B.

doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2013.06.008

Cited by 102 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…Other strategies lack rigorous experimental support or prove effective only under limited circumstances. For instance, there is only suggestive evidence of the efficacy of mindfulness meditation (Brunyé et al, 2013;Williams, Delizonna, & Langer, 2009;Shearer, Hunt, Chowdhury, & Nicol, 2015), distraction (Blagden & Craske, 1996), alcohol consumption (Steele & Josephs, 1988), and listening to music (Knight & Rickard, 2001).…”

Section: Rituals Reduce Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety

Brooks

Schroeder

Risen

et al. 2016

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

122

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a b s t r a c tFrom public speaking to first dates, people frequently experience performance anxiety. And when experienced immediately before or during performance, anxiety harms performance. Across a series of experiments, we explore the efficacy of a common strategy that people employ to cope with performance-induced anxiety: rituals. We define a ritual as a predefined sequence of symbolic actions often characterized by formality and repetition that lacks direct instrumental purpose. Using different instantiations of rituals and measures of anxiety (both physiological and self-report), we find that enacting rituals improves performance in public and private performance domains by decreasing anxiety. Belief that a specific series of behaviors constitute a ritual is a critical ingredient to reduce anxiety and improve performance: engaging in behaviors described as a ''ritual" improved performance more than engaging in the same behaviors described as ''random behaviors."

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Section: Rituals Reduce Anxietymentioning

confidence: 99%

RETRACTED: Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety

Brooks

Schroeder

Risen

et al. 2016

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

122

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent evidence has shown that a short bout of focused breathing exercise can boost the performance of students with HMA when they attempt a high-pressure arithmetic task (Brunyé et al, 2013). According to these authors, the bout of focused breathing was able to train the effective control of attention away from the distressing feelings in HMA individuals and, consequently, to focus attention on mathematical operations.…”

Section: Some Things Psychologists Could Domentioning

confidence: 99%

Math anxiety: A review of its cognitive consequences, psychophysiological correlates, and brain bases

Suárez‐Pellicioni

Peña

Colomé

2015

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

195

155

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A decade has passed since the last published review of math anxiety, which was carried out by Ashcraft and Ridley (2005). Given the considerable interest aroused by this topic in recent years and the growing number of publications related to it, the present article aims to provide a full and updated review of the field, ranging from the initial studies of the impact of math anxiety on numerical cognition, to the latest research exploring its electrophysiological correlates and brain bases from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Finally, this review describes the factors and mechanisms that have been claimed to play a role in the origins and/or maintenance of math anxiety, and it examines in detail the main explanations proposed to account for the negative effects of math anxiety on performance: competition for working memory resources, a deficit in a low-level numerical representation, and inhibition/attentional control deficit.Keywords Math anxiety . Numerical cognition . Brain correlates . fMRI . ERPs . Working memory . Inhibitory deficit . Attentional control deficit . Numerical magnitude representation As far as we know, the tutorial review carried out by Ashcraft and Ridley (2005) and published in Campbell's Handbook of Mathematical Cognition is the only general review carried out in the field of math anxiety to date. Given that several studies have been conducted since then, this review article aims to examine the current state of knowledge about math anxiety, ranging from the initial studies of the effect of math anxiety on numerical cognition (conducted by Ashcraft and collaborators), through to the most recent publications on the bases of math anxiety from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. This review also updates the main explanations for the effects of math anxiety on math performance, including a recent account on which our discussion of the latest findings on this topic is based and that has not previously been examined in a review.With this objective in mind, we begin by defining math anxiety and examining its relationship with other variables. We then explore the principal proposed explanations for its negative effects on performance (competition for working memory [WM] resources, inhibitory/attentional control deficit, and deficit in low-level numerical processing), as well as the main theories regarding its origin and maintenance (exposure to negative experiences, genetic factors, the role of math ability, attention, WM, and error processing). We end the review by examining the brain correlates of math anxiety-specifically, the findings of research using event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-and also by making certain recommendations that teachers, parents, and psychologists might take into account in order to help children reduce their levels of mathematical anxiety.

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“…Even brief interventions are effective in increasing attention, improving mood, improving reaction time, and reducing stress (Tang et al, 2007;Zeidan, Johnson, Diamond, David, & Goolkasian, 2010). Mindfulness training shows benefits in reducing the physiological stress responses elicited by mathematics tasks (Tang et al, 2007) and in improving performance on mathematics tasks for individuals with high MA (Brunye´et al, 2013) Cognitive reappraisal is another strategy proposed by Maloney and colleagues (2014) that can target both the physiological symptoms of state MA and the worry or negative thoughts that are the cognitive consequence of state MA. Reappraisal involves changing the way in which an anxiety-provoking situation is perceived in order to reduce its emotional impact (Gross & John, 2003).…”

Section: State and Trait-based Strategies To Alleviate Mathematics Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding and addressing mathematics anxiety using perspectives from education, psychology and neuroscience

Buckley

Reid

Goos

et al. 2016

Australian Journal of Education

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Mathematics anxiety is a significant barrier to mathematical learning. In this article, we propose that state or on-task mathematics anxiety impacts on performance, while trait mathematics anxiety leads to the avoidance of courses and careers involving mathematics. We also demonstrate that integrating perspectives from education, psychology and neuroscience contributes to a greater understanding of mathematics anxiety in its state and trait forms. Research from cognitive psychology and neuroscience illustrates the effect of state mathematics anxiety on performance and research from cognitive, social and clinical psychology, and education can be used to conceptualise the origins of trait mathematics anxiety and its impact on avoidant behaviour. We also show that using this transdisciplinary framework to consider state and trait mathematics anxiety separately makes it possible to identify strategies to reduce the negative effects of mathematics anxiety. Implementation of these strategies among particularly vulnerable groups, such as pre-service teachers, could be beneficial.

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Learning to relax: Evaluating four brief interventions for overcoming the negative emotions accompanying math anxiety

Cited by 102 publications

References 37 publications

RETRACTED: Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety

RETRACTED: Don’t stop believing: Rituals improve performance by decreasing anxiety

Math anxiety: A review of its cognitive consequences, psychophysiological correlates, and brain bases

Understanding and addressing mathematics anxiety using perspectives from education, psychology and neuroscience

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