What is it about?
High working memory (i.e. our ability to store and manipulate information) is related to better mathematics performance. We show that test anxiety taxes working memory resources and lowers performance in mathematics. This negative effect is even more pronounced in students with lower working memory capacity when it comes to basic arithmetic tasks.
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Why is it important?
Our findings demonstrate that test anxiety has a negative effect on performance regardless of skill level but at the same time hampers student with lower working memory resources even more when it comes to basic arithmetic tasks. This indicates that students with lower mathematical skills probably use more working memory intensive strategies (i.e. counting based strategies instead of retrieval strategies) when solving simple arithmetic tasks. Furthermore our results show that there are already individual differences in test anxiety in younger children.
Perspectives
I think that this study is a good example on how both cognitive and affective factors contribute to students' performance in mathematics. The take home message for teachers is that students from all skill levels can suffer from test anxiety and that this has a negative effect on their mathematics performance. Furthermore, students that use less efficient strategies when solving arithmetic tasks are even more vulnerable to the negative effects of test anxiety.
Johan Korhonen
Abo Akademi
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Additive and multiplicative effects of working memory and test anxiety on mathematics performance in grade 3 students, Educational Psychology, July 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/01443410.2017.1356449.
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