Estimation Strategy Selection Is Modulated by Snapshot Emotional Priming, but Not Math Anxiety

How do positive and negative emotions influence children's and adolescents' arithmetic performance?

This study is the first to investigate how negative and positive emotional states influence children's arithmetic performance and age-related differences therein. Children aged 8-14 (n = 149) were asked to verify true/false, one-digit addition problems (i.e., 8 + 2 = 10. True? False?) which were superimposed on emotionally negative, positive, or neutral pictures. The main results showed that (a) both positive and negative emotions impaired children's arithmetic performance, (b) deleterious effects of negative emotions were larger than those of positive emotions, (c) effects of emotions were modulated by the type of (true/false) problems, (d) effects of emotions on current trials were influenced by emotions on immediately preceding trials, and (e) effects of emotions as well as their trial-to-trial modulations changed with children's age. These findings have important implications for further our understanding of effects of emotions in children's arithmetic and how these effects change as children grow older.

Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Influence of Facial Information Processing on Estimation Performance

This study aimed to investigate the roles of facial information processing and math anxiety in estimation performance. Across three experiments, participants completed a two-digit multiplication estimation task under the conditions of emotion judgment (Experiment 1), identity judgment (Experiment 2), and combined emotion and identity judgment (Experiment 3). In the estimation task, participants used either the down-up or up-down problem to select approximate answers. In Experiment 1, we found that negative emotions impair estimation performance, while positive and consistent emotions have a facilitating effect on estimation efficiency. In Experiment 2, we found that emotion and identity consistency interact with each other, and negative emotions actually promote estimation efficiency when identity is consistent. In Experiment 3, we found that emotion, identity consistency, and emotional consistency have complex interactions on estimation performance. Moreover, in most face-processing conditions, participants' estimation performance is not affected by their level of math anxiety. However, in a small number of cases, mean proportions under happy and fearful conditions are negatively correlated with math anxiety.

Mathematical problem solving is modulated by word priming

This study aimed to explore the influence of word priming on mathematical problem solving. In two experiments, participants were required to finish multiplication estimation tasks with a specified estimation strategy under different word priming conditions (Experiment 1: concrete words vs. Experiment 2: abstract words). The results showed that: (1) under the concrete word priming condition, in comparison to neutral, positive word priming improved accuracies (ACCs) when using a down-up strategy (e.g., doing 40 × 80 = 3200 for 43 × 78), while both positive and negative word priming reduced reaction time (RT); (2) under the abstract word priming condition, both positive and negative (vs. neutral) abstract word priming reduced RTs, while individuals' ACCs of completing the estimation task were not influenced by valence. The present study showed that whether concrete words or abstract words were adopted as experimental stimuli, participants' performance of completing mathematical problems was modulated by the valence of the priming word, which led us to develop a better understanding of how arithmetic performance is influenced by word processing.