The Role of Working Memory Capacity in Math Performance
Several studies have noted that those with higher working memory capacity show the most pronounced negative relationship between math anxiety and math performance. The current study was interested in whether expressive writing would improve math performance for people with math anxiety. And if so, whether the rate of improvement was better for those with low or high working memory capacity? 62 university students (21 male, M 23.33) comprised the sample for the study. Using a repeated measures factorial design, writing was manipulated by splitting participants into an expressive condition (experimental group) and into a neutral writing condition (control group) Both groups also completed a math anxiety survey, a math test and a memory task. The study did not find evidence that expressive writing improves math performance. However, we did find that individuals with high working memory capacity performed better than individuals with low working memory capacity as the difficulty of math problems increased. Individuals with high working memory capacity may have more cognitive resources to draw on when task complexity increases and, thus, are better able to meet such challenges. Findings calls for interventions that help low working memory capacity individuals increase their math knowledge and math skills through learning more advanced problem solving strategies. ROLE OF WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY 3 The Role of Working Memory Capacity in Math Performance Mathematics is one of the most fundamental aspects of life. Despite this, certain individuals experience great worry and apprehension when confronted with math. This concept is known as math anxiety. Math anxiety, defined by Ashcraft Moore, (2009) is feelings of tension, apprehension, and fear of situations involving mathematics and is associated with poor math performance. Despite normal performance in most reasoning and thinking tasks, individuals with math anxiety perform poorly when the task involves numerical information (Maloney Beilock, 2012) This often leads to substantial negative consequences. For example, for math anxious individuals, simply thinking about math, opening a math textbook or even entering a math classroom can elicit a negative emotional response. Interestingly, and paradoxically, those with higher working memory capacity show the most pronounced negative relationship between math anxiety and math achievement (Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine, Beilock, 2013) In other words, individuals with the greatest capacity to excel in math do not, because when anxious, their working memory becomes flooded with negative self talk, which then reduces the efficiency and use of effortful strategies that help high working memory capacity individuals perform at a high level in math. Due to the negative consequences associated with math anxiety, especially for individuals with the capacity to excel in math, identifying ways to reduce its deleterious effects is essential. In the current study, knowledge about the cognitive mechanisms by which math anxiety relates to math performance is used to test an intervention designed to boost mathanxious students' performance on math tasks. How does Math Anxiety Develop? ROLE OF WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY 4 The dominant view adopted by educators and researchers was that math anxiety only emerged in the context of complex mathematics such as algebra, and thus was not present in young children (Maloney Beilock, 2012) Math anxiety was thought to develop in high school, due to the increasing difficulty of the math curriculum (Hembree, 1990) However, recent research has shown that children as young as first grade report varying levels of anxiety towards math, which is inversely related to their math achievement (Ramirez et al. 2013) When performing mathematical calculations, math anxious children, relative to their less anxious counterparts, show hyperactivity in their right amygdala regions, which is important for processing negative emotions (Ramirez et al. 2013) This increased amygdala activity is accompanied by reduced activity in brain regions known to support working memory and numerical processing (e.g. dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal lobe) (Young, Wu, Menon, 2012) In regards to the antecedents of math anxiety, Maloney Beilock (2012) have demonstrated that both social influences and cognitive predispositions play a role in the onset of math anxiety in early elementary school. Regarding social influences, studies note that children's math attitudes form as a result of an interaction with parents and teachers. According to Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine, Beilock, (2012) parents' and teachers' expectations for children's success in math are biased by their own gender stereotypes. These gender biased expectations lead to lower achievement and lower math self concepts among girls than boys. Similar to how social norms are passed down from one generation to another, negative math attitudes seem to be transmitted from teacher to student, and/or from parent to child (Gunderson et al. 2012) ROLE OF WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY 5 As mentioned, some individuals may also have a cognitive predisposition to develop math anxiety. In adults, math anxiety is associated with deficits in one or more of the fundamental building blocks of mathematics (Maloney Beilock, 2012) For example, several studies by Maloney and colleagues have reported that adults who are math anxious are worse than non math anxious adults at counting objects (Maloney, Risko, Ansari Fugelsang, 2010) at deciding which of two numbers represents a larger quantity (Maloney, Ansari, Fugelsang, 2011) and at mentally rotating 3D objects (Maloney, Waechter, Risko Fugelsang, 2012) Comparable to how people who lack knowledge in a particular area are often easily swayed by negative messages, children who start formal schooling with deficiencies in these mathematical building blocks may be especially predisposed to pick up on social cues (e.g. their teacher's behavior) that highlight math in a negative way (Maloney Beilock, 2012) Because math is an inevitable part of life, especially throughout formal school, it is important to understand the mediating factor between math anxiety and math performance because, it may impair individuals from not only excelling in math, but it can limit their career choices (Betz Hackett, 1983) Relationship between Math anxiety and Math Performance Research suggests that the relationship between math anxiety and subsequent math performance is due to a reduction in working memory capacity, which is often brought on by negative self talk flooding the individuals working memory (Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine, Beilock, 2013) Working memory capacity reflects one's ability to apply activation to memory representations, to either bring them into focus or maintain them in focus, particularly in the face of interference or distraction (Engle, Kane, ROLE OF WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY 6 Tuholski, 1999) In this case, it refers to an individual's ability to use advance problem solving strategies they learned to perform math problems while distracted. Along those lines, Beilock and Carr (2005) found support for distraction theories on choking under pressure, according to which, like anxiety, pressure creates mental distractions that compete for and reduce working memory capacity that would otherwise be allocated to skill execution. This work suggests that compromises of working memory capacity cause failure in tasks that rely heavily on this system. However, knowledge of the causal mechanisms governing suboptimal performance is only part of the key to understanding failure. To truly understand undesirable skill decrements, and to develop training interventions to alleviate them, one must also identify characteristics of those individuals most likely to fail. As stated, those with higher working memory capacity show the most pronounced negative relation between math anxiety and math achievement (Ramirez et al. 2013) When faced with a math related task, high math anxious individuals tend to worry about the situation and the consequences that might result. This suggest that math anxiety may negatively influence math performance by inhibiting the limited working memory resources that are crucial for successful math problem solving (Ashcraft Kirk, 2001; Ashcraft Moore, 2009; Engle, 2002; Young et al. 2012) In fact, individuals with higher working memory capacity have been demonstrated to show a greater deployment of advanced strategies and overall higher math achievement than their lower working memory peers (Beilock Carr, 2005) Consistent with Beilock Carr, (2005) Ramirez et al. (2013) demonstrated that anxietyrelated worries inhibit the working memory resources that individuals rely on to support advanced memory based strategies, thus making it difficult for high working memory ROLE OF WORKING MEMORY CAPACITY 7 capacity individuals to use the advanced memory based strategies they otherwise would use. In other words, higher math anxiety may reduce the efficiency and, hence, use of effortful strategies that help high working memory individuals to perform at a high level in math. By contrast, individuals lower in working memory might be less susceptible to the math anxiety induced disruptions to working memory because they typically rely on rudimentary strategies (e.g. counting) that are less demanding of working memory resources and also associated with lower math achievement (Barrouillet Lepine, 2005) In light of this, it is essential that researchers find ways in which to relieve math anxiety, in order to give individuals with the potential to excel in math a chance to be successful. Expressive Writing as an Intervention for Math Anxiety According to Park, Ramirez and Beilock (2014) previous attempts at reducing the detrimental impact of math anxiety on math performance have primarily focused on impro