Numerical comparison is spatial-Except when it is not.

The numerical distance effect (NDE) is an important tool for probing the nature of numerical representation. Across two studies, we assessed the degree to which the NDE relates to one's performance on spatial tasks to investigate the role of spatial processing in numerical comparison and, by extension, numerical cognition. We administered numerical comparison tasks and a variety of tasks thought to tap into different aspects of spatial processing. Importantly, we administered both the simultaneous comparison task and the comparison to a standard task, given claims that the NDEs that arise in these two tasks are different. In both studies, the NDEs elicited when comparing simultaneously presented numbers were more strongly negatively correlated with an individual's performance on the spatial tasks than the NDEs elicited when comparing numbers to a standard. The implications of these data for our understanding of numerical comparison tasks and numerical cognition more generally are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Spatial anxiety and spatial ability: Mediators of gender differences in math anxiety.

Females tend to be more anxious than males while engaging in mathematics, which has been linked to lower math performance and higher math avoidance. A possible repercussion of this gender difference is the underrepresentation of females in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), as math competencies are an essential part of succeeding in such fields. A related, but distinct, area of research suggests that males tend to outperform females in tasks that require spatial processing (i.e., the ability to mentally visualize, rotate, and transform spatial and visual information). Interestingly, factors from the spatial processing domain (spatial ability and spatial anxiety) are important in explaining gender differences in math anxiety. Here, we examined three types of spatial anxiety and ability (imagery, navigation, and manipulation), as well as math ability, as mediators of gender differences in math anxiety. Undergraduate students (125 male; 286 female) completed assessments of their general level of anxiety, their math anxiety, and their spatial anxiety. They also completed a series of tasks measuring their mathematical skill, their spatial skills, and basic demographics. Results suggest that manipulation anxiety and ability, navigation anxiety, and math ability explained the gender difference in math anxiety, but manipulation anxiety was the strongest mediator of this relation. Conversely, all other measures did not explain the gender difference in math anxiety. These findings help us better understand the gender difference in mathematics, and this is important in reducing the gender gap in STEM fields. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Higher math anxious people have a lower need for cognition and are less reflective in their thinking.

There exists a large body of literature seeking to understand the relation between math anxiety and success in mathematics. While most of this literature focuses on domain specific relations (i.e., how math anxiety impacts thinking about mathematics), in the current work we examine important relations between math anxiety and domain general factors. Specifically, we test three hypotheses: (1) that higher-math-anxious individuals have a lower need for and enjoyment of exerting cognitive effort, (2) that math anxiety mediates a relation between ones' propensity for cognitive effort and their achievement in mathematics, and (3) that higher-math-anxious individuals are less reflective in their thinking, and that this is not limited to questions that are heavily reliant on mathematical reasoning. As predicted, we uncovered relations between math anxiety and the domain-general constructs of need for cognition and cognitive reflection. Importantly, these negative relations hold even after controlling for math ability, general anxiety, and gender of the participant. The results are discussed in terms of implications for our understanding of the construct of math anxiety. Proficiency in mathematics is a major advantage in industrialised nations. Unfortunately, many people experience math-anxiety (Richardson & Suinn, 1972), becoming nervous when engaging in math tasks and avoiding math and math-related professions. As a result, those with math anxiety tend to severely limit their future career and earning opportunities (Chipman, Krantz, & Silver, 1992; Hembree, 1990). The resulting shortage of adults prepared to work in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics field (STEM) has negative consequences at the national level, particularity as societies become increasingly dependent upon technology (Beilock & Maloney, 2015; Chipman et al., 1992; Maloney & Beilock, 2012). Worldwide, increased math-anxiety is linked to decreased math achievement (Foley et al., 2017; Lee, 2009), and this is not limited to academic situations. Math-anxious nurses, for example, are more likely than non-math-anxious nurses to make poor drug calculations (Mcmullan, Jones, & Lea, 2012); math-anxious women are more likely than their peers to engage in poor financial planning (McKenna & Nickols, 1988), and math anxiety is negatively linked to the ability to interpret health statistics (Silk & Parrott, 2014). Given that math-anxiety is related to important and detrimental consequences in people's daily lives, it is vital that we work to understand the behavioural and cognitive differences between those who are high and low in math-anxiety.