Emotion Or Cognition:Research On The Relationship Between Math Anxiety,Number Processing Performance And Arithmetic Ability Of College Students

As a basic mathematical ability,computing ability has been widely concerned by researchers.Previous studies focused on the cognitive factors(such as number processing)or emotional factors(such as math anxiety)that affect computing ability,but lacked in-depth investigation of the relationship between the three.Whether number processing can mediate the relationship between math anxiety and computing ability has not been concluded yet.The relationship between number processing(cardinal number processing,ordinal number processing)and computing power has always been a hot topic in the field of number cognition.In the past,the research mainly focused on intentional processing,but lacked deep attention on automatic machining.It has not been well answered whether adult subjects can automatically process cardinality and ordinal information,and whether there are differences in the relationship between automatic processing performance and intentional processing performance and computing ability.Previous studies on the relationship between the performance of digital automatic processing and computing power only included one dimension of cardinal number and ordinal number(Bugden,2010;Vogel et al.,2019).Therefore,this study examines whether there is a difference in the relationship between intentional and automatic number-processing performance(including cardinal and ordinal dimensions)and computing power.The results of Study 1 support a strong association between intentional ordinal processing performance and computational power,but the underlying mechanism of this association remains unclear.Bourassa(2014)found that the performance of subjects in complex sequential trials is the best indicator to distinguish between high and low mathematical ability,while Lyons(2016)found that counting lists(counting lists refers to successive ascending sequences,such as 123)can best predict calculation performance.These contradictory results at least suggest that different sequential tasks are correlated differently with mathematical ability.Study 2 further enhanced the understanding of the relationship between intentional ordinal processing performance and numeracy by exploring simple ordinal processing performance(including conformity to the counting list intuition),complex ordinal processing performance,and the relationship between these performance and numeracy in adults.Math anxiety is an important emotional factor affecting individual computing ability,so it has been widely concerned.Ashcraft(1994)proposed the hypothesis of complexity effect of math anxiety: subjects are generally not affected by math anxiety in simple tasks,and only with the escalation of task complexity will subjects be disturbed by math anxiety.Therefore,Study 3 explores the relationship between math anxiety,number processing performance and numeracy,and further explores the role of complex ordinal number processing performance in the relationship between math anxiety and numeracy through the mediation effect model.In order to explore the above three key questions,this study explored the subjects’ intentional and automatic processing performance of cardinal number and ordinal number by using the number comparison task,the size comparison task,the number order judgment task and the size order judgment task.Standard sequence task,consistent sequence task and skew sequence task were used to explore the performance of simple and complex sequence tasks.The equation identification task was used to explore the calculation ability of the subjects.The Revised Math Anxiety Scale was used to explore the math anxiety of adult subjects,and the following results were obtained:(1)the consistency effect appeared in the automatic processing task;Only intentional digital processing performance was found to be positively correlated with computational performance.(2)There was no reverse distance effect in the standard sequence task,but there was reverse distance effect in both the consistent sequence task and the skew sequence task;The ordinal processing performance(whether simple or complex tasks)was positively correlated with all the subdimensions of the calculation,and the correlation between the consistent sequence task and the calculation was the highest.(3)There was a significant positive correlation between the average reaction time of the math anxiety and the skew sequence task,and the math anxiety was positively correlated with all the subdimensions of the calculation.Complex ordinal processing performance does not mediate the relationship between mathematical anxiety and numeracy.Conclusions:(1)Adult subjects were able to automatically process the cardinal meaning and ordinal meaning of numbers.Intentional processing rather than automatic processing is the key to understanding the relationship between numerical processing and numeracy.(2)Task processing efficiency was improved when participants were allowed to view only the order of counting lists as "ordered".There was a strong association between intentional ordinal processing and numeracy,and counting lists may be the key to explain the relationship between intentional ordinal processing and numeracy.(3)Math anxiety and number processing performance are both factors affecting numeracy.Ordinal number processing performance does not explain the relationship between math anxiety and numeracy.