The Contribution of Memory and Anxiety to the Math Performance of College Students with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

The impact of memory and anxiety on math performance was analyzed in a sample of 115 college undergraduates, all of whom had a diagnosed learning disability. The direct effects of memory and anxiety on math performance were first examined, followed by an examination of whether anxiety moderates the relationship between memory and math. Both memory and anxiety were found to directly affect math performance. Additionally, anxiety served as a moderator of the relationship between memory and math for most, but not all, measures of math achievement. The moderating effect of anxiety was stronger for long-term retrieval than for short-term memory. The relationships between memory, anxiety, and math were not significantly different for males and females. These findings suggest that, when working with individuals who have low anxiety but poor memory, enhancing memory strategies may be effective for remediating problems in math. However, for those with high levels of anxiety, it may be more efficacious to first ameliorate the anxiety, as working on memory may have a negligible effect on math performance for these individuals.

Addressing Test Anxiety

“…Also, students can complete surveys that rate the extent to which they experience the physical, behavioral, and affective symptoms associated with test anxiety (Peleg, 2009;Prevatt, Welles, Li, & Proctor, 2010;Whitaker Sena et al, 2007). Cizek and Burg (2006) offer a summary and review of surveys for assessing test anxiety.…”

Who is afraid of math? Two sources of genetic variance for mathematical anxiety

“…While research on academic outcomes historically stressed the importance of cognitive abilities, such as general intelligence and working memory (Rohde & Thompson, 2007), emerging literature also increasingly acknowledges the important roles that affective attributes play in academic competence (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007;Owens, Stevenson, Hadwin, & Norgate, 2012;Pekrun, Goetz, Frenzel, Barchfeld, & Perry, 2011). Negative affects in the academic context including anger, anxiety, and depression have profound influences on academic performance through both motivational and cognitive mechanisms (Eysenck et al, 2007;Pekrun et al, 2011), highlighting the importance of cognitive-affective interplay in academic development (Prevatt, Welles, Li, & Proctor, 2010;Putwain, Connors, & Symes, 2010). Mathematical anxiety (MA) is one particular example of such academic-related affects that has attracted recent research attention, and its debilitating impacts on the development of mathematics skills are well rep-licated (Ma, 1999;Zientek, Yetkiner, & Thompson, 2010).…”

Teachers Awareness of Students’ Anxiety in Math Classroom: Teachers’ Treatment VS Students’ Anxiety

“…Many elementary teachers have math anxiety and are uncomfortable teaching math; this negative attitude then is also passed on to influential students (Geist, 2010). Other variables effecting the development of a student's mathematical anxiety can also include gender stereotypes, socioeconomic issues (Kesici & ErdoGan, 2010), shyness and personality (Woodard, 2004), other learning disabilities (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2008), memory and thought process (Prevatt, Wells, & Li, 2010), learning styles, teaching styles, and the motivation of the student; anxiety is an outcome of an attitude (Ertekin et al, 2009).…”

“…It is not a surprise that those with a math anxiety avoid careers and college courses that incorporate large or 'difficult' mathematical topics (Ashcraft, 2002). Mathematics disabilities and anxiety play a key role in the drop out rate of students (Prevatt et al, 2010). The students who have dropped out tend to have a lower paying job, and when these drop out students give birth to other children, the children will then grow up in the environment that does not like, use, or understand math, embedding the negative attitude that math is hard and worthless; starting the cycle of anxiety at an early age.…”