Academic Journal
The Mathematics Anxiety-Complexity Effect in Word Problems.
| Τίτλος: | The Mathematics Anxiety-Complexity Effect in Word Problems. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Daroczy G; Department of Psychology, University of Tuebingen, Germany.; LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tuebingen, Germany., Cramer F; Department of Psychology, University of Tuebingen, Germany., Artemenko C; Department of Psychology, University of Tuebingen, Germany.; LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tuebingen, Germany.; German Centre of Mental Health (DZPG), University of Tuebingen, Germany., Hunt TE; School of Science, University of Derby, UK., Nuerk HC; Department of Psychology, University of Tuebingen, Germany.; LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tuebingen, Germany.; German Centre of Mental Health (DZPG), University of Tuebingen, Germany. |
| Πηγή: | Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) [Q J Exp Psychol (Hove)] 2026 Aug; Vol. 79 (8), pp. 2184-2198. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Feb 17. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Sage in association with Experimental Psychology Society Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101259775 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1747-0226 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17470218 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: 2018- : London : Sage in association with Experimental Psychology Society Original Publication: London : Informa Healthcare |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Anxiety*/psychology , Anxiety*/physiopathology , Problem Solving*/physiology , Mathematics* , Vocabulary*, Humans ; Female ; Male ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Adolescent |
| Περίληψη: | Word problems are notoriously difficult for students to solve and require both mathematical and linguistic processes. Moreover, word problem-solving performance might also be negatively affected by mathematics (math) anxiety, particularly when task complexity increases. Therefore, the study investigated whether math anxiety impacts word problem performance, particularly when mathematical difficulty (i.e., arithmetic carry/borrow operations) or linguistic difficulty (i.e., lexical consistency) increases. In an online experiment with N = 129 adults, we observed that higher math anxiety levels were related to lower performance in word problem-solving. Moreover, math anxiety particularly affected performance in linguistically - but not arithmetically - difficult word problems. This suggests that math-anxious individuals particularly struggle during word problem-solving when the text was more difficult to translate into an arithmetic problem. Therefore, the anxiety-complexity effect in word problems holds for math anxiety affecting the resolution of linguistic complexity rather than arithmetic complexity. |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. |
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| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: anxiety-complexity effect; arithmetic complexity; lexical consistency; mathematics anxiety; online experiment; word problems |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260217 Date Completed: 20260725 Latest Revision: 20260813 |
| Update Code: | 20260813 |
| PubMed Central ID: | PMC13400789 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/17470218261425251 |
| PMID: | 41700602 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1747-0226 |
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| DOI: | 10.1177/17470218261425251 |