Table_1_Math Anxiety and Working Memory Updating: Difficulties in Retrieving Numerical Information From Working Memory.DOCX

This study aimed to determine whether math anxiety was related to working memory (WM) updating performance and, specifically, to the retrieval and substitution components of updating. A set of WM updating (WMU) tasks that involve different retrieval and substitution requirements were administered to 114 university students. In addition, participants completed a math anxiety assessment on two occasions: 1–2 weeks before and immediately prior to task administration to increase the likelihood of observing the relationship between math anxiety and updating performance. The results showed a relationship between math anxiety scores and updating performance. Math anxious individuals took longer and made more errors, especially on tasks that required retrieving information from WM. These results suggest that math anxious individuals are less efficient when it comes to accessing numerical information in WM. Consequently, they may struggle with math-related tasks that involve retrieving numerical information from WM.

本研究旨在探讨数学焦虑是否与工作记忆（WM）更新性能相关，尤其是与更新过程中的信息检索和替换组件相关。研究人员对114名大学生进行了包括不同检索和替换要求的系列工作记忆更新（WMU）任务。此外，参与者分别在任务实施前1-2周以及任务实施前立即完成了两次数学焦虑评估，以增加观察数学焦虑与更新性能之间关系的机会。研究结果揭示了数学焦虑分数与更新性能之间存在关联。数学焦虑者花费更多时间，且错误率更高，尤其是在需要从工作记忆中检索信息的任务上。这些结果表明，在访问工作记忆中的数值信息方面，数学焦虑者效率较低，因此他们在涉及从工作记忆中检索数值信息的数学任务中可能面临困难。