한빛사 논문
Kyoung Whan Choe1,2,*, Jalisha B. Jenifer1,*, Christopher S. Rozek3, Marc G. Berman1,4 and Sian L. Beilock1,5,†
1Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
2Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
3Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
4Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
5President, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
†Corresponding author.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract
Math anxiety—negative feelings toward math—is hypothesized to be associated with the avoidance of math-related activities such as taking math courses and pursuing STEM careers. However, there is little experimental evidence for the math anxiety-avoidance link. Such evidence is important for formulating how to break this relationship. We hypothesize that math avoidance emerges when one perceives the costs of effortful math engagement to outweigh its benefits and that this perception depends on individual differences in math anxiety. To test this hypothesis, we developed an effort-based decision-making task in which participants chose between solving easy, low-reward problems and hard, high-reward problems in both math and nonmath contexts. Higher levels of math anxiety were associated with a tendency to select easier, low-reward problems over harder, high-reward math (but not word) problems. Addressing this robust math anxiety-avoidance link has the potential to increase interest and success in STEM fields.
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