scholarly journals Avoiding Math on a Rapid Timescale: Emotional Responsivity and Anxious Attention in Math Anxiety

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel G. Pizzie ◽  
David J.M. Kraemer
Keyword(s):  
Math Anxiety ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Attentional Deployment ◽  
Mathematical Symbols ◽  
Amygdala Response ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Attentional Avoidance ◽  
Threat Avoidance ◽  
Attentional Responses ◽  
Negative Feelings

AbstractMath anxiety (MA) is characterized by negative feelings towards mathematics, resulting in avoidance of math classes and of careers that rely on mathematical skills. Focused on a long timescale, this research may miss important cognitive and affective processes that operate moment-to-moment, changing rapid reactions even when a student simply sees a math problem. Here, using fMRI with an attentional deployment paradigm, we show that MA influences rapid spontaneous emotional and attentional responses to mathematical stimuli upon brief presentation. Critically, participants viewed but did not attempt to solve the problems. Indicating increased threat reactivity to even brief presentations of math problems, increased MA was associated with increased amygdala response during math viewing trials. Functionally and anatomically defined amygdala ROIs yielded similar results, indicating robustness of the finding. Similar to the pattern of vigilance and avoidance observed in specific phobia, behavioral results of the attentional paradigm demonstrated that MA is associated with attentional disengagement for mathematical symbols. This attentional avoidance is specific to math stimuli; when viewing negatively-valenced images, MA is correlated with attentional engagement, similar to other forms of anxiety. These results indicate that even brief exposure to mathematics triggers a neural response related to threat avoidance in highly MA individuals.

Attentional Bias Among Adolescents Who Stutter: Evidence for a Vigilance–Avoidance Effect

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 3349-3363
Author(s):  
Naomi H. Rodgers ◽  
Jennifer Y. F. Lau ◽  
Patricia M. Zebrowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Cutoff Score ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
The Social ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
High Social Anxiety

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine group and individual differences in attentional bias toward and away from socially threatening facial stimuli among adolescents who stutter and age- and sex-matched typically fluent controls. Method Participants included 86 adolescents (43 stuttering, 43 controls) ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. They completed a computerized dot-probe task, which was modified to allow for separate measurement of attentional engagement with and attentional disengagement from facial stimuli (angry, fearful, neutral expressions). Their response time on this task was the dependent variable. Participants also completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and provided a speech sample for analysis of stuttering-like behaviors. Results The adolescents who stutter were more likely to engage quickly with threatening faces than to maintain attention on neutral faces, and they were also more likely to disengage quickly from threatening faces than to maintain attention on those faces. The typically fluent controls did not show any attentional preference for the threatening faces over the neutral faces in either the engagement or disengagement conditions. The two groups demonstrated equivalent levels of social anxiety that were both, on average, very close to the clinical cutoff score for high social anxiety, although degree of social anxiety did not influence performance in either condition. Stuttering severity did not influence performance among the adolescents who stutter. Conclusion This study provides preliminary evidence for a vigilance–avoidance pattern of attentional allocation to threatening social stimuli among adolescents who stutter.

scholarly journals Calculated avoidance: Math anxiety predicts math avoidance in effort-based decision-making

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. eaay1062 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyoung Whan Choe ◽  
Jalisha B. Jenifer ◽  
Christopher S. Rozek ◽  
Marc G. Berman ◽  
Sian L. Beilock
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Word Problems ◽  
Math Anxiety ◽  
Stem Fields ◽  
Stem Careers ◽  
High Reward ◽  
Negative Feelings

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.

scholarly journals Neural responses associated with attentional engagement and disengagement from threat in high socially anxious children: Evidence from temporal-spatial PCA

PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0261172
Author(s):  
Erika Wauthia ◽  
Fabien D’Hondt ◽  
Wivine Blekic ◽  
Laurent Lefebvre ◽  
Laurence Ris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Electrophysiological Data ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Engagement And Disengagement

Background Cognitive models indicated that social anxiety disorder (SAD) would be caused and maintained by a biased attentional processing of threatening information. This study investigates whether socially anxious children may present impaired attentional engagement and disengagement from negative emotional faces, as well as their underlying event-related potential responses. Methods and findings Fifteen children with high levels of social anxiety (HSA; 9 boys; mean age = 9.99y; SD = 1.14) and twenty low socially anxious children (LSA; 16 boys; mean age = 10.47y; SD = 1.17) participated in a spatial cueing task in which they had to detect targets following neutral/disgusted faces in a valid or invalid location. No group effect was reported on reaction times [p>.05]. However, electrophysiological data showed lower P3a amplitude in HSA children compared with the LSA group when processing facial stimuli. They also reported larger N2 amplitudes for valid-disgusted targets and a larger P3a amplitude for the invalid-disgusted ones. Conclusion In terms of electrophysiological data, our results validated, the hypothesis of attentional disengagement difficulties in SAD children. We also confirm the idea that high levels of social anxiety are associated with cognitive control impairments and have a greater impact on the processing efficiency than on the performance effectiveness.

scholarly journals Calculated Avoidance: Math Anxiety Predicts Math Avoidance in Effort-Based Decision-Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyoung Whan Choe ◽  
Jalisha Braxton Jenifer ◽  
Christopher S Rozek ◽  
Marc Berman ◽  
Sian L. Beilock
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Word Problems ◽  
Math Anxiety ◽  
Stem Fields ◽  
Stem Careers ◽  
High Reward ◽  
Negative Feelings

Math anxiety – negative feelings towards math – is hypothesized to be associated with the avoidance of math-related activities such as taking math courses and pursuing STEM careers. Surprisingly, however, there is little experimental evidence for the math anxiety-avoidance link. Such evidence is important for formulating how to break this relation. Here, 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, 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 non-math 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.

scholarly journals A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janika Heitmann ◽  
Nienke C. Jonker ◽  
Peter J. de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Promising Candidate ◽  
Alcohol Cues ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Relevant Context ◽  
Use Behavior ◽  
Engagement And Disengagement

Attentional bias (AB) has been suggested to contribute to the persistence of substance use behavior. However, the empirical evidence for its proposed role in addiction is inconsistent. This might be due to the inability of commonly used measures to differentiate between attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. Attesting to the importance of differentiating between both components of AB, a recent study using the odd-one-out task (OOOT) showed that substance use was differentially related to engagement and disengagement bias. However, the AB measures derived from the OOOT showed insufficient reliability to be used as a solid measure of individual differences. Therefore, the current study aimed to improve the reliability of the AB measures derived from the OOOT by using more distinct contrast stimuli, adding practice trials, increasing the number of trials, and by having participants perform the task in an alcohol-relevant context. We contrasted the original OOOT with the adapted OOOT (i.e., OOOT-adapt) and assessed AB in low- and high-drinking individuals. Participants were 245 undergraduate students who typically tend to drink either low or high amounts of alcohol. In one condition, AB was measured with the original OOOT in a typical laboratory context, whereas in the other condition, AB was measured with the OOOT-adapt in a bar (i.e., alcohol-relevant) context. The OOOT-adapt showed superior internal consistency, especially for the high-drinking group. Further, specifically the OOOT-adapt differentiated between low- and high-drinking participants showing that high drinkers engaged faster with alcohol cues than did low drinkers. Thus, the OOOT-adapt was found to be a promising candidate to reliably index AB in the context of alcohol use. The OOOT-adapt further showed superior criterion validity as it could differentiate between low- and high-drinking individuals, thereby adding to the evidence that AB might be involved in substance use behavior.

Math Anxiety

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sian L. Beilock ◽  
Erin A. Maloney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Math Anxiety ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychology Education ◽  
Affective Factors ◽  
Math Success ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
Stem Engagement ◽  
Negative Feelings

The United States is currently not producing enough graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields to meet the demands of a technology-dependent society. Although there are many efforts in place to improve STEM education in the United States, most notably, President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, these efforts focus mostly on innovating the teaching of math content and less on the role of affective factors in math achievement. Here we discuss a phenomenon known as math anxiety (i.e., negative feelings of tension and fear that many people experience when engaging in math) and the implications math anxiety carries for math success and STEM engagement. We begin by highlighting the most recent findings from research in psychology, education, and neuroscience on math anxiety. We then discuss the consequences of math anxiety as well as likely causes and promising remediations. We suggest that the initiatives currently underway to improve STEM involvement and achievement would benefit from educating current and future teachers, parents, and even students about math anxiety, its causes, consequences, and possibilities for amelioration.

scholarly journals Human body motion captures visual attention and elicits pupillary arousal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin H Williams ◽  
Filipe Cristino ◽  
Emily S. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Autonomic Arousal ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Attentional Engagement

The social motivation theory proposes that individuals naturally orient their attention to the social world. Here, we used complementary eye tracking measures to investigate how social motion cues affect attention and arousal. Specifically, we examined whether viewing the human body moving naturally versus mechanically leads to greater attentional engagement and changes in autonomic arousal (as assessed by pupil size measures). This question is based on previous research documenting the rewarding value of biological motion to typically developed individuals. Participants completed an attentional disengagement task in two independent experiments, while pupillary responses were recorded. We found that natural, human-like motion produced greater increases in attention and arousal than mechanical motion, whether the moving agent was human or not. These findings contribute an important piece to our understanding of social motivation by demonstrating that human motion is a key social stimulus that engages visual attention and induces autonomic arousal in the viewer.

scholarly journals A serial mediation model of attentional engagement with thin bodies on body dissatisfaction: The role of appearance comparisons and rumination

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Dondzilo ◽  
Julian Basanovic ◽  
Ben Grafton ◽  
Jason Bell ◽  
Georgia Turnbull ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Body Dissatisfaction ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Thin Ideal ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Appearance Comparison ◽  
Serial Mediation

The present study examined the associations among biased attentional responding to thin-ideal bodies, appearance comparisons, eating disorder-specific rumination, and body dissatisfaction. Sixty-seven females completed an attentional task capable of independently assessing biased attentional engagement with, and biased attentional disengagement from, images of thin-ideal bodies relative to images of non-thin bodies. Self-report measures of the other relevant constructs were also taken. Results revealed that a heightened tendency to engage in appearance comparisons was predicted by increased attentional engagement with thin-ideal bodies but not by impaired attentional disengagement from thin-ideal bodies. Moreover, a serial mediation analysis revealed that increased attentional engagement with thin-ideal bodies was associated with greater appearance comparison, which in turn was associated with greater eating disorder-specific rumination and consequently greater body dissatisfaction. The current findings suggest that increased attentional engagement with thin-ideal bodies might represent a pathway to body dissatisfaction, mediated by greater appearance comparison and eating-disorder specific rumination.

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