We examined whether math anxiety is related to a response inhibition deficit and, if so, whether it is a domain-specific inhibition deficit in numerical tasks or a general inhibition deficit. Behavioral performance and electroencephalogram activity were recorded while 28 highly math–anxious (HMA) and 28 low math–anxious (LMA) individuals performed both a numerical and a non-numerical Go/Nogo task. In the numerical task, single-digit numbers were presented, and participants were asked to press a button if the number was even. In the non-numerical task, letters were presented, and the button had to be pressed if the letter was a vowel. Nogo trials were answered less accurately and elicited larger Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3 than Go trials in both tasks and both groups. Importantly, behavioral and brain response differences between tasks were only found in the HMA group. First, they were more error-prone in numerical Nogo than in non-numerical Nogo trials; and second, their Nogo-N2 and N2d (Nogo–Go difference) were smaller in the numerical task than in the non-numerical task. No differences were found in the LMA group. These results suggest that HMA individuals’ response inhibition is impaired specifically when dealing with numbers, which could contribute to their low achievement in math tasks.

中文翻译：

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数学焦虑个体的反应抑制缺陷


我们检查了数学焦虑是否与反应抑制缺陷有关，如果是，它是数值任务中的特定领域抑制缺陷还是一般抑制缺陷。当 28 名高度数学焦虑 （HMA） 和 28 名低数学焦虑 （LMA） 个体执行数字和非数字 Go/Nogo 任务时，记录了行为表现和脑电图活动。在数字任务中，呈现个位数的数字，如果数字为偶数，则要求参与者按下按钮。在非数字任务中，呈现字母，如果字母是元音，则必须按下按钮。在两个任务和两组中，Nogo 试验的回答不太准确，并且引发的 Nogo-N2 和 Nogo-P3 比 Go 试验更大。重要的是，任务之间的行为和大脑反应差异仅在 HMA 组中发现。首先，它们在数字 Nogo 试验中比在非数字 Nogo 试验中更容易出错;其次，它们在数值任务中的 Nogo-N2 和 N2d （Nogo-Go 差异） 小于在非数值任务中。在 LMA 组中未发现差异。这些结果表明，HMA 个体的反应抑制在处理数字时尤其受损，这可能导致他们在数学任务中的成绩不佳。