The relationships among working memory, math anxiety, and performance

Individuals with high math anxiety demonstrated smaller working memory span s, especially when assessed with a computation-based span task. This reduce d working memory capacity led to a pronounced increase in reaction time and errors when mental addition was performed concurrently with a memory load task. The effects of the reduction also generalized to a working memory-int ensive transformation task. Overall, the results demonstrated that an indiv idual difference variable, math anxiety, affects on-line performance in mat h-related tasks and that this effect is a transitory disruption of working memory. The authors consider a possible mechanism underlying this effect-di sruption of central executive processes-and suggest that individual differe nce variables like math anxiety deserve greater empirical attention, especi ally on assessments of working memory capacity and functioning.