Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

How Instruction, Math Anxiety, And Math Achievement Affect Learning A Novel Math Task: Evidence For Better Instruction, Amy Jane Mcauley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The primary goal of this paper is to test how math anxiety, achievement, and instruction affect learning a novel math task. Currently, most research measures achievement and math anxiety on previously learned tasks. A two-part study was proposed to measure the effects of math anxiety on learning modular arithmetic (MA), a novel math task that involves subtraction and division. Participants of varying degrees of anxiety and achievement were randomly assigned to either a specific or vague instruction condition. Participants were either taught how to solve the task or given minimal information about how to solve the task. Before moving on, …