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Is math literally painful for students with high math anxiety?

8/9/2017

3 Comments

 
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​Last week, Dr. Nolting stumbled upon a fascinating article at PLOS One about the physical effects of math anxiety. He and the rest of us at Academic Success Press found it incredibly groundbreaking. In it, two cognitive scientists, Ian M. Lyons and Sian L. Beilock show that math anxiety triggers “activity in regions associated with visceral threat detection.” This causes students who suffer from high math anxiety to feel something close to “the experience of pain itself” when anticipating “math-related situations.”

Given the pedigree of the academics involved—Beilock is now the president of Columbia University’s Barnard College—the article carries a lot of weight. Its authors asked students to complete a word task and a math task while measuring neural activity using fMRI. During these tests, students with math anxiety showed upticks in activity in regions of the brain associated with pain perception.

Lyons and Beilock ultimately concluded that these results may “provide a potential neural mechanism to explain why [students with high math anxiety] tend to avoid math and math-related situations, which in turn can bias [them] away from taking math classes or even entire math-related career paths.”

Fascinating, fascinating stuff.

For more, the entire article is available at:
Lyons IM, Beilock SL (2012) When Math Hurts: Math Anxiety Predicts Pain Network Activation in Anticipation of Doing Math. PLoS ONE 7(10): e48076. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048076

Also, if you would like to know more about how physical environments affect human behavior, check out one of Sian Beilock's books (listed below). Both are well-received and serve as good introductions to the indelible link between the human body and mind. 
How the Body Knows Its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel
Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting It Right When You Have To
3 Comments
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2/2/2019 05:31:04 am

I believe in this conclusion. I admit that I am one of the many students who have math anxiety. God knows how much I tried to be familiar with mathematics when I was still a student. I was even giving more time to study the said subject compared to other subjects, but I simply couldn't get it. Once the pressure gets on you and you have forgotten the right process to solve a particular math problem, it's really hard to be back on track! I hope that the student nowadays will overcome this kind of anxiety!

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1/1/2020 10:16:18 am

informative post. Thnks for sharing

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5/3/2022 04:52:35 am

I very much appreciate it. Thank you for this excellent article. Keep posting!

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    Dr. Nolting is a national expert in assessing math learning problems, developing effective student learning strategies, assessing institutional variables that affect math success and math study skills. He is also an expert in helping students with disabilities and Wounded Warriors become successful in math. He now assists colleges and universities in redesigning their math courses to meet new curriculum requirements. He is the author of two math study skills texts: Winning at Math and My Math Success Plan. 

    Blog Highlights

    American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges presenter, Senior Lecturer-Modular
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    Hunter Boylan (National Center for Developmental Education, Director)
    Paul Nolting (Learning Specialist, Founder of National Math Summits)
    Amy Getz (Dana Center -UT)
    Rachel Beattie (Carnegie Foundation)
    ​Rochelle Beatty (National Math Summit Presenter. Instructor)
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    ​Rebecca Goosen (National Center for Developmental Education, past president) 
    Barbara Illowsky (National Math Summit Presenter, Instructor) 
    Taunya Paul (National Center for Developmental Education, past president)
    Jane Tanner (American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, past president)
    David Arendale (National Center for Developmental Education, past president)
    Leah Rineck (American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges presenter, Senior Lecturer-Modular)
    Fitzroy Farquharson (eMathready.com)

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    ​Written by learning specialist Dr. Paul Nolting, the sixth, researched-based edition of Winning at Math is the most comprehensive version of the book to date. In addition to the time-tested study strategies featured in older editions, the new Winning at Math also includes math-specific study skills custom-designed for students taking online and Emporium model courses.

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