1
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Kardan O, Stier AJ, Layden EA, Choe KW, Lyu M, Zhang X, Beilock SL, Rosenberg MD, Berman MG. Improvements in task performance after practice are associated with scale-free dynamics of brain activity. Netw Neurosci 2023; 7:1129-1152. [PMID: 37781143 PMCID: PMC10473260 DOI: 10.1162/netn_a_00319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 10/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Although practicing a task generally benefits later performance on that same task, there are individual differences in practice effects. One avenue to model such differences comes from research showing that brain networks extract functional advantages from operating in the vicinity of criticality, a state in which brain network activity is more scale-free. We hypothesized that higher scale-free signal from fMRI data, measured with the Hurst exponent (H), indicates closer proximity to critical states. We tested whether individuals with higher H during repeated task performance would show greater practice effects. In Study 1, participants performed a dual-n-back task (DNB) twice during MRI (n = 56). In Study 2, we used two runs of n-back task (NBK) data from the Human Connectome Project sample (n = 599). In Study 3, participants performed a word completion task (CAST) across six runs (n = 44). In all three studies, multivariate analysis was used to test whether higher H was related to greater practice-related performance improvement. Supporting our hypothesis, we found patterns of higher H that reliably correlated with greater performance improvement across participants in all three studies. However, the predictive brain regions were distinct, suggesting that the specific spatial H↑ patterns are not task-general.
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Affiliation(s)
- Omid Kardan
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Andrew J. Stier
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Elliot A. Layden
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Kyoung Whan Choe
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Muxuan Lyu
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
| | - Xihan Zhang
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Sian L. Beilock
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Marc G. Berman
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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2
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Park D, Gunderson EA, Maloney EA, Tsukayama E, Beilock SL, Duckworth AL, Levine SC. Parental intrusive homework support and math achievement: Does the child's mindset matter? Dev Psychol 2023; 59:1249-1267. [PMID: 37166869 PMCID: PMC10835763 DOI: 10.1037/dev0001522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
Prior research shows that when parents monitor, check, and assist in completing homework without an invitation, their children's motivation and academic achievement often decline. We propose that intrusive support from parents might also send the message that children are incompetent, especially if they believe their intelligence is fixed. We tested whether children's mindsets moderate the negative link between parents' intrusive homework support and achievement among first- and second-grade students followed for one academic year (Study 1, N = 563) and middle and high school students for two academic years (Study 2, N = 1,613). The samples were obtained from large urban areas in the United States. In both studies, intrusive homework support more strongly predicted a decrease in achievement over time for children with a fixed mindset. These findings suggest that the belief that intellectual ability cannot be changed may exacerbate the detrimental effects of uninvited help on academic work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Daeun Park
- Department of Psychology, Sungkyunkwan University
| | | | | | - Eli Tsukayama
- Division of Business Administration, University of Hawaii–West O’ahu
| | | | - Angela L. Duckworth
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
- Department of Operations, Information and Decisions, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
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3
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Jenifer JB, Rozek CS, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Effort(less) exam preparation: Math anxiety predicts the avoidance of effortful study strategies. J Exp Psychol Gen 2022; 151:2534-2541. [PMID: 35286113 DOI: 10.1037/xge0001202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that math anxiety, or feelings of apprehension about math, leads individuals to engage in math avoidance behaviors that negatively impact their future math performance. However, much of the research on this topic explores global avoidance behaviors in situations where math can be avoided entirely rather than more localized avoidance behaviors that occur within a mathematics context. Since the option to completely avoid math is not common in most formal education systems, we investigated how and if math avoidance behaviors manifest for math-anxious high school students enrolled in math courses. Given previous research highlighting the utility of effortful study strategies as well as recent findings identifying a relation between math anxiety and the avoidance of math-related effort, we hypothesized that math anxiety would be associated with decreased planned engagement of effortful study strategies by students and that such effort avoidance would result in worse performance on a high-stakes mathematics exam. We found (N = 190) that the majority of students ranked problem-solving as the most effortful study strategy and that math anxiety was associated with less planned engagement with effortful problem-solving during studying. Moreover, the avoidance of effortful problem-solving engagement partially mediated the association between math anxiety and exam performance, marking it as a potential target for intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
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4
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Schaeffer MW, Rozek CS, Maloney EA, Berkowitz T, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Elementary school teachers' math anxiety and students' math learning: A large-scale replication. Dev Sci 2021; 24:e13080. [PMID: 33382186 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 11/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
A solid foundation in math is important for children's long-term academic success. Many factors influence children's math learning-including the math content students are taught in school, the quality of their instruction, and the math attitudes of students' teachers. Using a large and diverse sample of first-grade students (n = 551), we conducted a large-scale replication of a previous study (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 2010, 1860; n = 117), which found that girls in classes with highly math anxious teachers learned less math during the school year, as compared to girls whose math teachers were less anxious about math. With a larger sample, we found a negative relation between teachers' math anxiety and students' math achievement for both girls and boys, even after accounting for teachers' math ability and children's beginning of year math knowledge, replicating and extending those previous results. Our findings strengthen the support for the hypothesis that teachers' math anxiety is one factor that undermines children's math learning and could push students off-track during their initial exposure to math in early elementary school.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Sian L Beilock
- Barnard College, Columbia University and University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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5
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Pantoja N, Schaeffer MW, Rozek CS, Beilock SL, Levine SC. Children’s Math Anxiety Predicts Their Math Achievement Over and Above a Key Foundational Math Skill. Journal of Cognition and Development 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2020.1832098] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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6
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Choe KW, Jenifer JB, Rozek CS, Berman MG, Beilock SL. Calculated avoidance: Math anxiety predicts math avoidance in effort-based decision-making. Sci Adv 2019; 5:eaay1062. [PMID: 31799398 PMCID: PMC6867883 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay1062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Accepted: 09/17/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
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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Affiliation(s)
- Kyoung Whan Choe
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | | | - Marc G. Berman
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology and Human Behavior, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Sian L. Beilock
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
- President, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
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7
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Ramirez G, Fries L, Gunderson E, Schaeffer MW, Maloney EA, Beilock SL, Levine SC. Reading Anxiety: An Early Affective Impediment to Children’s Success in Reading. Journal of Cognition and Development 2018. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2018.1526175] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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8
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Schaeffer MW, Rozek CS, Berkowitz T, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Disassociating the relation between parents' math anxiety and children's math achievement: Long-term effects of a math app intervention. J Exp Psychol Gen 2018; 147:1782-1790. [PMID: 30284862 DOI: 10.1037/xge0000490] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Although parents' fears and worries about math-termed math anxiety-are negatively associated with their children's math achievement in early elementary school, access to an educational math app that 1st-grade children and parents use together can ameliorate this relation. Here we show that children of higher-math-anxious parents learn less math during 1st-3rd grades, but this is not the case when families are given a math app (even after app use markedly decreases). Reducing the link between parents' math anxiety and their positive attitudes about math for their children helped to explain the sustained benefit of the math app. These findings indicate that interventions involving parents and children together can have powerful lasting effects on children's academic achievement and suggest that changes in parents' expectations for their children's potential for success in math, and the value they place on this success, play a role in these sustained effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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9
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Lyons IM, Beilock SL. Characterizing the neural coding of symbolic quantities. Neuroimage 2018; 178:503-518. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2018] [Revised: 05/24/2018] [Accepted: 05/25/2018] [Indexed: 10/16/2022] Open
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10
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Chang H, Sprute L, Maloney EA, Beilock SL, Berman MG. Simple arithmetic: not so simple for highly math anxious individuals. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2018; 12:1940-1949. [PMID: 29140499 PMCID: PMC5716197 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsx121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2016] [Accepted: 10/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Fluency with simple arithmetic, typically achieved in early elementary school, is thought to be one of the building blocks of mathematical competence. Behavioral studies with adults indicate that math anxiety (feelings of tension or apprehension about math) is associated with poor performance on cognitively demanding math problems. However, it remains unclear whether there are fundamental differences in how high and low math anxious individuals approach overlearned simple arithmetic problems that are less reliant on cognitive control. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural correlates of simple arithmetic performance across high and low math anxious individuals. We implemented a partial least squares analysis, a data-driven, multivariate analysis method to measure distributed patterns of whole-brain activity associated with performance. Despite overall high simple arithmetic performance across high and low math anxious individuals, performance was differentially dependent on the fronto-parietal attentional network as a function of math anxiety. Specifically, low—compared to high—math anxious individuals perform better when they activate this network less—a potential indication of more automatic problem-solving. These findings suggest that low and high math anxious individuals approach even the most fundamental math problems differently.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hyesang Chang
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Lisa Sprute
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Erin A Maloney
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Sian L Beilock
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.,Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Marc G Berman
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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11
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Gunderson EA, Park D, Maloney EA, Beilock SL, Levine SC. Reciprocal relations among motivational frameworks, math anxiety, and math achievement in early elementary school. Journal of Cognition and Development 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2017.1421538] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Daeun Park
- Chungbuk National University, South Korea
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12
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Henry A, Sattizahn JR, Norman GJ, Beilock SL, Maestripieri D. Performance during competition and competition outcome in relation to testosterone and cortisol among women. Horm Behav 2017; 92:82-92. [PMID: 28428002 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2016] [Revised: 03/25/2017] [Accepted: 03/28/2017] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition. This study investigated the relation between competition, testosterone (T), and cortisol (C) in women. One hundred and twenty female participants competed against a male confederate in a computerized laboratory task. The task was preprogrammed so that half the women won and half of the women lost the competition. T and C concentrations were measured in saliva samples collected at four time points before and after the competition. Accuracy and reaction time during the competition were recorded. T and C increased directly after the competition, though not significantly for C, and then decreased over time regardless of the competition outcome. Regression analyses demonstrated that baseline T was significantly and positively associated with competition accuracy, though only in individuals who were low in C. Individuals who were high in C showed no relation between T and accuracy. This relation was further qualified by competition outcome. Losers of the competition showed a significant positive relation between baseline T levels and competition accuracy, though only if they were low in C. No relation was found between T and accuracy in losers who were high in C. Winners of the competition showed no relation between T and accuracy, regardless of whether C levels were high or low. These results are in line with the dual-hormone hypothesis, whereby the effects of T on status-seeking behaviors are dependent on C levels for individuals whose status is threatened.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Henry
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, USA; Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago, USA.
| | | | - Greg J Norman
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, USA
| | - Sian L Beilock
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, USA; Committee on Education, The University of Chicago, USA
| | - Dario Maestripieri
- Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago, USA; Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago, USA
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13
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Abstract
Demand for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals is on the rise worldwide. To effectively meet this demand, many governments and private organizations have revamped STEM education and promoted training to enhance math and science skills among students and workers. Education and training programs typically focus on increasing individuals’ math and science knowledge. However, data from laboratory studies and large-scale international assessments suggest that fear or apprehension about math, math anxiety, should also be considered when trying to increase math achievement and, in turn, STEM career success. This article reviews findings that shed light on antecedents of math anxiety, the bidirectional math anxiety-performance relation, underlying mechanisms, and promising routes to mitigating the negative relation between math anxiety and math performance.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Sonia Guerriero
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, France
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14
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15
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Chang H, Beilock SL. The math anxiety-math performance link and its relation to individual and environmental factors: a review of current behavioral and psychophysiological research. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.04.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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16
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Park D, Schaeffer MW, Nolla KM, Levine SC, Beilock SL. How do generic statements impact performance? Evidence for entity beliefs. Dev Sci 2016; 20. [PMID: 27365144 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12396] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2015] [Accepted: 11/21/2015] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Generic statements about the abilities of children's social groups (e.g. 'Girls/Boys are good at this game') negatively impact children's performance - even if the statements are favorable towards children's own social groups. We explored the mechanism by which generic language impairs children's performance. Across three studies, our findings suggest that generic statements influence children's performance by creating an entity belief (i.e. a belief that a fixed ability determines performance). Children who were exposed to a generic statement about their social group's ability performed worse than children in control conditions. This effect hurt children's performance even when the person who made the generic statement was no longer present and a new person not privy to the statement replaced them. However, when children heard a generic statement paired with an effort explanation (i.e. 'Girls/Boys are good at this game because they try really hard when they draw') they performed better than children who heard the generic statement with no explanation (i.e. just 'Girls/Boys are good at this game') and children who heard the generic statement paired with a trait explanation (i.e. 'Girls/Boys are good at this game because they are smart and really good at drawing'). This work uncovers when and how generic statements that refer to the ability of one's social group hinder performance, informing the development of practices to improve student motivation and learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daeun Park
- Department of Child Welfare, Chungbuk National University, Korea
| | | | - Kyle M Nolla
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, USA
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17
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Abstract
We examined the relation between pressure-induced performance decrements, or “choking under pressure,” in mathematical problem solving and individual differences in working memory capacity. In cognitively based academic skills such as math, pressure is thought to harm performance by reducing the working memory capacity available for skill execution. Results demonstrated that only individuals high in working memory capacity were harmed by performance pressure, and, furthermore, these skill decrements were limited to math problems with the highest demands on working memory capacity. These findings suggest that performance pressure harms individuals most qualified to succeed by consuming the working memory capacity that they rely on for their superior performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sian L Beilock
- Department of Psychology, Miami University, Room 202, Benton Hall, Oxford, OH 45056, USA.
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18
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Park D, Gunderson EA, Tsukayama E, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Young children’s motivational frameworks and math achievement: Relation to teacher-reported instructional practices, but not teacher theory of intelligence. Journal of Educational Psychology 2016. [DOI: 10.1037/edu0000064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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19
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Berkowitz T, Schaeffer MW, Rozek CS, Maloney EA, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Response to Comment on “Math at home adds up to achievement in school”. Science 2016; 351:1161. [DOI: 10.1126/science.aad8555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2015] [Accepted: 01/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Frank presents an alternative interpretation of our data, yet reports largely similar results to those in our original Report. A critical difference centers on how to interpret and test interaction effects. Frank finds no mistakes in our analyses. We stand by our original conclusions of meaningful effects of the Bedtime Learning Together (BLT) math app on children’s math achievement.
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20
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Abstract
By the time children begin formal schooling, their experiences at home have already contributed to large variations in their math and language development, and once school begins, academic achievement continues to depend strongly on influences outside of school. It is thus essential that educational reform strategies involve primary caregivers. Specifically, programs and policies should promote and support aspects of caregiver–child interaction that have been empirically demonstrated to boost early learning and should seek to impede “motivational sinkholes” that threaten to undermine caregivers’ desires to engage their children effectively. This article draws on cognitive and behavioral science to detail simple, low-cost, and effective tools caregivers can employ to prepare their children for educational success and then describes conditions that can protect and facilitate caregivers’ motivation to use those tools. Policy recommendations throughout focus on using existing infrastructure to more deeply engage caregivers in effective early childhood education at home.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Benjamin A. Converse
- University of Virginia, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
- University of Virginia, Department of Psychology
| | - Chloe R. Gibbs
- University of Virginia, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
- University of Virginia, Curry School of Education
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21
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Abstract
With a randomized field experiment of 587 first-graders, we tested an educational intervention designed to promote interactions between children and parents relating to math. We predicted that increasing math activities at home would increase children's math achievement at school. We tested this prediction by having children engage in math story time with their parents. The intervention, short numerical story problems delivered through an iPad app, significantly increased children's math achievement across the school year compared to a reading (control) group, especially for children whose parents are habitually anxious about math. Brief, high-quality parent-child interactions about math at home help break the intergenerational cycle of low math achievement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Talia Berkowitz
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | | | - Erin A Maloney
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Lori Peterson
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Courtney Gregor
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Susan C Levine
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
| | - Sian L Beilock
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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22
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Abstract
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.
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23
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Ramirez G, Chang H, Maloney EA, Levine SC, Beilock SL. On the relationship between math anxiety and math achievement in early elementary school: The role of problem solving strategies. J Exp Child Psychol 2015; 141:83-100. [PMID: 26342473 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 95] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2015] [Revised: 07/20/2015] [Accepted: 07/22/2015] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Even at young ages, children self-report experiencing math anxiety, which negatively relates to their math achievement. Leveraging a large dataset of first and second grade students' math achievement scores, math problem solving strategies, and math attitudes, we explored the possibility that children's math anxiety (i.e., a fear or apprehension about math) negatively relates to their use of more advanced problem solving strategies, which in turn relates to their math achievement. Our results confirm our hypothesis and, moreover, demonstrate that the relation between math anxiety and math problem solving strategies is strongest in children with the highest working memory capacity. Ironically, children who have the highest cognitive capacity avoid using advanced problem solving strategies when they are high in math anxiety and, as a result, underperform in math compared with their lower working memory peers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerardo Ramirez
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA; Department of Human Development and Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Hyesang Chang
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Erin A Maloney
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Susan C Levine
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Department of Human Development, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Sian L Beilock
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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24
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Maloney EA, Ramirez G, Gunderson EA, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Intergenerational Effects of Parents' Math Anxiety on Children's Math Achievement and Anxiety. Psychol Sci 2015. [PMID: 26253552 DOI: 10.1177/0956797615592630.] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
A large field study of children in first and second grade explored how parents' anxiety about math relates to their children's math achievement. The goal of the study was to better understand why some students perform worse in math than others. We tested whether parents' math anxiety predicts their children's math achievement across the school year. We found that when parents are more math anxious, their children learn significantly less math over the school year and have more math anxiety by the school year's end-but only if math-anxious parents report providing frequent help with math homework. Notably, when parents reported helping with math homework less often, children's math achievement and attitudes were not related to parents' math anxiety. Parents' math anxiety did not predict children's reading achievement, which suggests that the effects of parents' math anxiety are specific to children's math achievement. These findings provide evidence of a mechanism for intergenerational transmission of low math achievement and high math anxiety.
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Maloney EA, Ramirez G, Gunderson EA, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Intergenerational Effects of Parents' Math Anxiety on Children's Math Achievement and Anxiety. Psychol Sci 2015; 26:1480-8. [PMID: 26253552 DOI: 10.1177/0956797615592630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 222] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2015] [Accepted: 06/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
A large field study of children in first and second grade explored how parents' anxiety about math relates to their children's math achievement. The goal of the study was to better understand why some students perform worse in math than others. We tested whether parents' math anxiety predicts their children's math achievement across the school year. We found that when parents are more math anxious, their children learn significantly less math over the school year and have more math anxiety by the school year's end-but only if math-anxious parents report providing frequent help with math homework. Notably, when parents reported helping with math homework less often, children's math achievement and attitudes were not related to parents' math anxiety. Parents' math anxiety did not predict children's reading achievement, which suggests that the effects of parents' math anxiety are specific to children's math achievement. These findings provide evidence of a mechanism for intergenerational transmission of low math achievement and high math anxiety.
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Abstract
Recent research has shown that people's actions can influence how they think. A separate body of research has shown that the gestures people produce when they speak can also influence how they think. In this article, we bring these two literatures together to explore whether gesture has an effect on thinking by virtue of its ability to reflect real-world actions. We first argue that gestures contain detailed perceptual-motor information about the actions they represent, information often not found in the speech that accompanies the gestures. We then show that the action features in gesture do not just reflect the gesturer's thinking--they can feed back and alter that thinking. Gesture actively brings action into a speaker's mental representations, and those mental representations then affect behavior--at times more powerfully than do the actions on which the gestures are based. Gesture thus has the potential to serve as a unique bridge between action and abstract thought.
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Abstract
Three laboratory experiments involving students' behavior and brain imaging and one randomized field experiment in a college physics class explored the importance of physical experience in science learning. We reasoned that students' understanding of science concepts such as torque and angular momentum is aided by activation of sensorimotor brain systems that add kinetic detail and meaning to students' thinking. We tested whether physical experience with angular momentum increases involvement of sensorimotor brain systems during students' subsequent reasoning and whether this involvement aids their understanding. The physical experience, a brief exposure to forces associated with angular momentum, significantly improved quiz scores. Moreover, improved performance was explained by activation of sensorimotor brain regions when students later reasoned about angular momentum. This finding specifies a mechanism underlying the value of physical experience in science education and leads the way for classroom practices in which experience with the physical world is an integral part of learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carly Kontra
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago Committee on Education, University of Chicago
| | - Daniel J Lyons
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago Committee on Education, University of Chicago
| | | | - Sian L Beilock
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago Committee on Education, University of Chicago
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Lyons IM, Ansari D, Beilock SL. Qualitatively different coding of symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers in the human brain. Hum Brain Mapp 2014; 36:475-88. [PMID: 25238646 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22641] [Citation(s) in RCA: 80] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2013] [Revised: 08/22/2014] [Accepted: 09/11/2014] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Are symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers coded differently in the brain? Neuronal data indicate that overlap in numerical tuning curves is a hallmark of the approximate, analogue nature of nonsymbolic number representation. Consequently, patterns of fMRI activity should be more correlated when the representational overlap between two numbers is relatively high. In bilateral intraparietal sulci (IPS), for nonsymbolic numbers, the pattern of voxelwise correlations between pairs of numbers mirrored the amount of overlap in their tuning curves under the assumption of approximate, analogue coding. In contrast, symbolic numbers showed a flat field of modest correlations more consistent with discrete, categorical representation (no systematic overlap between numbers). Directly correlating activity patterns for a given number across formats (e.g., the numeral "6" with six dots) showed no evidence of shared symbolic and nonsymbolic number-specific representations. Overall (univariate) activity in bilateral IPS was well fit by the log of the number being processed for both nonsymbolic and symbolic numbers. IPS activity is thus sensitive to numerosity regardless of format; however, the nature in which symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers are encoded is fundamentally different.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian M Lyons
- University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
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29
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Maloney EA, Sattizahn JR, Beilock SL. Anxiety and cognition. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014; 5:403-411. [DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2014] [Revised: 05/01/2014] [Accepted: 05/09/2014] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Erin A. Maloney
- Department of Psychology University of Chicago Chicago IL USA
| | | | - Sian L. Beilock
- Department of Psychology University of Chicago Chicago IL USA
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Woods EA, Hernandez AE, Wagner VE, Beilock SL. Expert athletes activate somatosensory and motor planning regions of the brain when passively listening to familiar sports sounds. Brain Cogn 2014; 87:122-33. [PMID: 24732956 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2014.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2013] [Revised: 03/11/2014] [Accepted: 03/16/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study examined the neural response to familiar and unfamiliar, sport and non-sport environmental sounds in expert and novice athletes. Results revealed differential neural responses dependent on sports expertise. Experts had greater neural activation than novices in focal sensorimotor areas such as the supplementary motor area, and pre- and postcentral gyri. Novices showed greater activation than experts in widespread areas involved in perception (i.e. supramarginal, middle occipital, and calcarine gyri; precuneus; inferior and superior parietal lobules), and motor planning and processing (i.e. inferior frontal, middle frontal, and middle temporal gyri). These between-group neural differences also appeared as an expertise effect within specific conditions. Experts showed greater activation than novices during the sport familiar condition in regions responsible for auditory and motor planning, including the inferior frontal gyrus and the parietal operculum. Novices only showed greater activation than experts in the supramarginal gyrus and pons during the non-sport unfamiliar condition, and in the middle frontal gyrus during the sport unfamiliar condition. These results are consistent with the view that expert athletes are attuned to only the most familiar, highly relevant sounds and tune out unfamiliar, irrelevant sounds. Furthermore, these findings that athletes show activation in areas known to be involved in action planning when passively listening to sounds suggests that auditory perception of action can lead to the re-instantiation of neural areas involved in producing these actions, especially if someone has expertise performing the actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A Woods
- The University of Houston, Department of Psychology, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA.
| | - Arturo E Hernandez
- The University of Houston, Department of Psychology, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Victoria E Wagner
- The University of Houston, Department of Psychology, 126 Heyne Building, Houston, TX 77204, USA
| | - Sian L Beilock
- The University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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Maloney EA, Schaeffer MW, Beilock SL. Mathematics anxiety and stereotype threat: shared mechanisms, negative consequences and promising interventions. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/14794802.2013.797744] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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33
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Abstract
Listeners are able to glean information from the gestures that speakers produce, seemingly without conscious awareness. However, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie this process. Research on human action understanding shows that perceiving another's actions results in automatic activation of the motor system in the observer, which then affects the observer's understanding of the actor's goals. We ask here whether perceiving another's gesture can similarly result in automatic activation of the motor system in the observer. In Experiment 1, we first established a new procedure in which listener response times are used to study how gesture impacts sentence comprehension. In Experiment 2, we used this procedure, in conjunction with a secondary motor task, to investigate whether the listener's motor system is involved in this process. We showed that moving arms and hands (but not legs and feet) interferes with the listener's ability to use information conveyed in a speaker's hand gestures. Our data thus suggest that understanding gesture relies, at least in part, on the listener's own motor system.
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Ramirez G, Gunderson EA, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Math Anxiety, Working Memory, and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School. Journal of Cognition and Development 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2012.664593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 140] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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35
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Beilock SL, Gray R. From attentional control to attentional spillover: A skill-level investigation of attention, movement, and performance outcomes. Hum Mov Sci 2012. [DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2012.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 77] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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36
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Abstract
Developmental psychologists have long recognized the extraordinary influence of action on learning (Held & Hein, 1963; Piaget, 1952). Action experiences begin to shape our perception of the world during infancy (e.g., as infants gain an understanding of others' goal-directed actions; Woodward, 2009) and these effects persist into adulthood (e.g., as adults learn about complex concepts in the physical sciences; Kontra, Lyons, Fischer, & Beilock, 2012). Theories of embodied cognition provide a structure within which we can investigate the mechanisms underlying action's impact on thinking and reasoning. We argue that theories of embodiment can shed light on the role of action experience in early learning contexts, and further that these theories hold promise for using action to scaffold learning in more formal educational settings later in development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carly Kontra
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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37
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Abstract
Spatial skill is highly related to success in math and science (e.g., Casey, Nuttall, Pezaris, & Benbow, 1995). However, little work has investigated the cognitive pathways by which the relation between spatial skill and math achievement emerges. We hypothesized that spatial skill plays a crucial role in the development of numerical reasoning by helping children to create a spatially meaningful, powerful numerical representation-the linear number line. In turn, a strong linear number representation improves other aspects of numerical knowledge such as arithmetic estimation. We tested this hypothesis using 2 longitudinal data sets. First, we found that children's spatial skill (i.e., mental transformation ability) at the beginning of 1st and 2nd grades predicted improvement in linear number line knowledge over the course of the school year. Second, we found that children's spatial skill at age 5 years predicted their performance on an approximate symbolic calculation task at age 8 and that this relation was mediated by children's linear number line knowledge at age 6. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that spatial skill can improve children's development of numerical knowledge by helping them to acquire a linear spatial representation of numbers.
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Quandt LC, Marshall PJ, Shipley TF, Beilock SL, Goldin-Meadow S. Sensitivity of alpha and beta oscillations to sensorimotor characteristics of action: an EEG study of action production and gesture observation. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:2745-2751. [PMID: 22910276 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2012] [Revised: 07/20/2012] [Accepted: 08/06/2012] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The sensorimotor experiences we gain when performing an action have been found to influence how our own motor systems are activated when we observe others performing that same action. Here we asked whether this phenomenon applies to the observation of gesture. Would the sensorimotor experiences we gain when performing an action on an object influence activation in our own motor systems when we observe others performing a gesture for that object? Participants were given sensorimotor experience with objects that varied in weight, and then observed video clips of an actor producing gestures for those objects. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while participants first observed either an iconic gesture (pantomiming lifting an object) or a deictic gesture (pointing to an object) for an object, and then grasped and lifted the object indicated by the gesture. We analyzed EEG during gesture observation to determine whether oscillatory activity was affected by the observer's sensorimotor experiences with the object represented in the gesture. Seeing a gesture for an object previously experienced as light was associated with a suppression of power in alpha and beta frequency bands, particularly at posterior electrodes. A similar pattern was found when participants lifted the light object, but over more diffuse electrodes. Moreover, alpha and beta bands at right parieto-occipital electrodes were sensitive to the type of gesture observed (iconic vs. deictic). These results demonstrate that sensorimotor experience with an object affects how a gesture for that object is processed, as measured by the gesture-observer's EEG, and suggest that different types of gestures recruit the observer's own motor system in different ways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lorna C Quandt
- Temple University, Department of Psychology, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
| | - Peter J Marshall
- Temple University, Department of Psychology, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
| | - Thomas F Shipley
- Temple University, Department of Psychology, 1701 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
| | - Sian L Beilock
- The University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Susan Goldin-Meadow
- The University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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39
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Maloney EA, Beilock SL. Math anxiety: who has it, why it develops, and how to guard against it. Trends Cogn Sci 2012; 16:404-6. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2012.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 201] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2012] [Accepted: 06/14/2012] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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40
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Allen EC, Beilock SL, Shevell SK. Individual differences in simultaneous color constancy are related to working memory. J Opt Soc Am A Opt Image Sci Vis 2012; 29:A52-9. [PMID: 22330405 PMCID: PMC3494405 DOI: 10.1364/josaa.29.000a52] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Few studies have investigated the possible role of higher-level cognitive mechanisms in color constancy. Following up on previous work with successive color constancy [J. Exper. Psychol. Learn. Mem. Cogn. 37, 1014 (2011)], the current study examined the relation between simultaneous color constancy and working memory-the ability to maintain a desired representation while suppressing irrelevant information. Higher working memory was associated with poorer simultaneous color constancy of a chromatically complex stimulus. Ways in which the executive attention mechanism of working memory may account for this are discussed. This finding supports a role for higher-level cognitive mechanisms in color constancy and is the first to demonstrate a relation between simultaneous color constancy and a complex cognitive ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth C Allen
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
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41
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Mattarella-Micke A, Mateo J, Kozak MN, Foster K, Beilock SL. Choke or thrive? The relation between salivary cortisol and math performance depends on individual differences in working memory and math-anxiety. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012; 11:1000-5. [PMID: 21707166 DOI: 10.1037/a0023224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
In the current study, we explored how a person's physiological arousal relates to their performance in a challenging math situation as a function of individual differences in working memory (WM) capacity and math-anxiety. Participants completed demanding math problems before and after which salivary cortisol, an index of arousal, was measured. The performance of lower WM individuals did not depend on cortisol concentration or math-anxiety. For higher WM individuals high in math-anxiety, the higher their concentration of salivary cortisol following the math task, the worse their performance. In contrast, for higher WM individuals lower in math-anxiety, the higher their salivary cortisol concentrations, the better their performance. For individuals who have the capacity to perform at a high-level (higher WMs), whether physiological arousal will lead an individual to choke or thrive depends on math-anxiety.
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Ramirez G, Gunderson EA, Levine SC, Beilock SL. Spatial anxiety relates to spatial abilities as a function of working memory in children. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2012; 65:474-87. [PMID: 22239255 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2011.616214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
Spatial ability is a strong predictor of students' pursuit of higher education in science and mathematics. However, very little is known about the affective factors that influence individual differences in spatial ability, particularly at a young age. We examine the role of spatial anxiety in young children's performance on a mental rotation task. We show that even at a young age, children report experiencing feelings of nervousness at the prospect of engaging in spatial activities. Moreover, we show that these feelings are associated with reduced mental rotation ability among students with high but not low working memory (WM). Interestingly, this WM × spatial anxiety interaction was only found among girls. We discuss these patterns of results in terms of the problem-solving strategies that boys versus girls use in solving mental rotation problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerardo Ramirez
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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43
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Lyons IM, Ansari D, Beilock SL. Symbolic estrangement: Evidence against a strong association between numerical symbols and the quantities they represent. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2012; 141:635-41. [DOI: 10.1037/a0027248] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Ian M Lyons
- University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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44
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Gunderson EA, Ramirez G, Beilock SL, Levine SC. "The relation between spatial skill and early number knowledge: The role of the linear number line": Correction to Gunderson et al. (2012). Dev Psychol 2012. [DOI: 10.1037/a0028593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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45
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Abstract
Poor performance in pressure-filled situations, or "choking under pressure," has largely been explained by two different classes of theories. Distraction theories propose that choking occurs because attention needed to perform the task at hand is coopted by task-irrelevant thoughts and worries. Explicit monitoring theories claim essentially the opposite-that pressure prompts individuals to attend closely to skill processes in a manner that disrupts execution. Although both mechanisms have been shown to occur in certain contexts, it is unclear when distraction and/or explicit monitoring will ultimately impact performance. The authors propose that aspects of the pressure situation itself can lead to distraction and/or explicit monitoring, differentially harming skills that rely more or less on working memory and attentional control. In Experiments 1-2, it is shown that pressure that induces distraction (involving performance-contingent outcomes) hurts rule-based category learning heavily dependent on attentional control. In contrast, pressure that induces explicit monitoring of performance (monitoring by others) hurts information-integration category learning thought to run best without heavy demands on working memory and attentional control. In Experiment 3, the authors leverage knowledge about how specific types of pressure impact performance to design interventions to eliminate choking. Finally, in Experiment 4, the selective effects of monitoring-pressure are replicated in a different procedural-based task: the serial reaction time task. Skill failure (and success) depends in part on how the performance environment influences attention and the extent to which skill execution depends on explicit attentional control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marci S DeCaro
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37203, USA.
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46
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Abstract
Anxiety about math is tied to low math grades and standardized test scores, yet not all math-anxious individuals perform equally poorly in math. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to separate neural activity during the anticipation of doing math from activity during math performance itself. For higher (but not lower) math-anxious individuals, increased activity in frontoparietal regions when simply anticipating doing math mitigated math-specific performance deficits. This network included bilateral inferior frontal junction, a region involved in cognitive control and reappraisal of negative emotional responses. Furthermore, the relation between frontoparietal anticipatory activity and highly math-anxious individuals' math deficits was fully mediated (or accounted for) by activity in caudate, nucleus accumbens, and hippocampus during math performance. These subcortical regions are important for coordinating task demands and motivational factors during skill execution. Individual differences in how math-anxious individuals recruit cognitive control resources prior to doing math and motivational resources during math performance predict the extent of their math deficits. This work suggests that educational interventions emphasizing control of negative emotional responses to math stimuli (rather than merely additional math training) will be most effective in revealing a population of mathematically competent individuals, who might otherwise go undiscovered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian M Lyons
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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47
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Lyons IM, Beilock SL. Numerical ordering ability mediates the relation between number-sense and arithmetic competence. Cognition 2011; 121:256-61. [PMID: 21855058 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 224] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2010] [Revised: 06/08/2011] [Accepted: 07/22/2011] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
What predicts human mathematical competence? While detailed models of number representation in the brain have been developed, it remains to be seen exactly how basic number representations link to higher math abilities. We propose that representation of ordinal associations between numerical symbols is one important factor that underpins this link. We show that individual variability in symbolic number-ordering ability strongly predicts performance on complex mental-arithmetic tasks even when controlling for several competing factors, including approximate number acuity. Crucially, symbolic number-ordering ability fully mediates the previously reported relation between approximate number acuity and more complex mathematical skills, suggesting that symbolic number-ordering may be a stepping stone from approximate number representation to mathematical competence. These results are important for understanding how evolution has interacted with culture to generate complex representations of abstract numerical relationships. Moreover, the finding that symbolic number-ordering ability links approximate number acuity and complex math skills carries implications for designing math-education curricula and identifying reliable markers of math performance during schooling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian M Lyons
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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48
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Abstract
We explored the relation between individual differences in working memory (WM) and color constancy, the phenomenon of color perception that allows us to perceive the color of an object as relatively stable under changes in illumination. Successive color constancy (measured by first viewing a colored surface under a particular illumination and later recalling it under a new illumination) was better for higher WM individuals than for lower WM individuals. Moreover, the magnitude of this WM difference depended on how much contextual information was available in the scene, which typically improves color constancy. By contrast, simple color memory, measured by viewing and recalling a colored surface under the same illumination, showed no significant relation to WM. This study reveals a relation between WM and a low-level perceptual process not previously thought to operate within the confines of attentional control, and it provides a first account of the individual differences in color constancy known about for decades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth C Allen
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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49
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Beilock SL, Ramirez G. Practical Implications of Test Anxiety Tools—Response. Science 2011. [DOI: 10.1126/science.332.6031.792-a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Sian L. Beilock
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Gerardo Ramirez
- Department of Psychology and Committee on Education, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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Abstract
We investigated whether the impact of an object's orientation on a perceiver's actions (an orientation effect) is moderated by the perceiver's ability to act on the object in question. To do this, we manipulated the physical location of presented objects (Experiment 1) and the perceiver's action capacity (Experiment 2). Regardless of the physical distance of the object, manual responses were sensitive to the object's orientation (the orientation effect) when the object was within the participant's action range but not when the object was outside of the action range. These results support an embodied view of object perception and shed light on peripersonal space representation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shu-Ju Yang
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Sian L. Beilock
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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