中国科技网11月10日报道（张微 编译）对某些学生来说遇到数学焦虑的状态，主要表现就是，但凡沾上和数学有关的东西，就会紧张、不安、全身难受，当然数学考试也不会考出好成绩。但是一项新的研究表明，对另外一些学生来说，数学焦虑至少在某种程度上，却能激发斗志，在数学考试中攻坚克难。这项研究的成果发表在《心理科学》杂志上，这是心理科学协会的一个期刊。

在两项研究中，弗吉尼亚理工大学的研究人员王哲，俄亥俄州立大学的研究人员史蒂芬 佩崔尔，以及他们的同事发现，中等水平数学焦虑的学生往往数学成绩很好，这些学生的数学积极性高，也就是说，这些学生重视数学，喜欢数学学习的挑战。但是，对那些学习积极性不高的学生来说，高水平的数学焦虑会导致低水平的数学成绩。

“我们的研究结果表明，数学焦虑和数学成绩之间的负相关性并不普遍，”王和佩崔尔说。“数学学习动机对于数学焦虑的消极影响是一个重要的缓冲因素。”

虽然有些孩子对数学有焦虑，那是因为对他们来说，数学很难学，他们能感受到来自数学学习的压力，还有些学生也可能担心数学，但是，他们是想要取得好成绩。研究人员推测，对这两类人群来说，不同的潜在动机会对数学学习行为和成绩产生完全不同的影响。

在第一项研究中，专家们对262对同性双胞胎的数据进行研究。这些孩子的平均年龄12岁，完成了数学焦虑和数学动机的测试。他们也完成了6项任务，这些任务主要考察，数学成绩，流畅计算能力，以及运用定量推理方法来解决问题。

结果表明，根据年龄，数学焦虑和数学动机之间没有显著差异，但是女孩往往表现出比男孩更高的数学焦虑水平。

当研究人员将数学焦虑和数学动机一起研究时，出现了一个复杂的结果。对于数学学习动机水平低的孩子，如果数学焦虑加重，那么数学成绩就一定差。对还那些数学学习动机水平高的孩子，数学焦虑和成绩之间的关系，呈现出一个倒U型：数学成绩随着数学焦虑的增加而提高，在中等焦虑水平时达到峰值。当数学焦虑增加超过这个中点时，数学成绩开始下降。

为了验证这些结果的可靠性，研究人员又进行了一次测试，这次的研究对象是237名大学生。这次他们发现，数学学习动机低的学生，数学焦虑与数学成绩差有关，而数学动机高的学生，在焦虑和成绩之间也表现出倒U型关系。

“这些研究成果表明，仅仅努力去降低数学焦虑水平，并不适用于所有学生，”佩崔尔说。“对一些孩子来说，数学焦虑是数学学习的不利因素，学习动机却可以帮助克服数学焦虑的不利影响。尤其是对那些学习动机高，想要学好数学，数学焦虑中等水平的孩子，这种方法是有效果的。”

根据王和佩崔尔的介绍，循着这条研究线索，下一步将考察数学焦虑和成绩复杂关系背后实时的心理变化。

Math anxiety doesn't equal poor math performance

Experiencing math anxiety—nervousness and discomfort in relation to math—impairs math performance for some students, but new research shows that it's linked with improved performance for others, at least to a degree. The findings are published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

In two studies, researchers Zhe Wang of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Stephen Petrill of The Ohio State University, and colleagues found that a moderate level of math anxiety was associated with high math performance among students who reported high math motivation—that is, among students who reported that they valued math and embraced math challenges. For those who are low in this kind of math motivation, however, high math anxiety appears to be linked with low math performance.

"Our findings show that the negative association between math anxiety and math learning is not universal," say Wang and Petrill. "Math motivation can be an important buffer to the negative influence of math anxiety."

While some children might be anxious about math because it is extremely difficult for them and they feel threatened by it, others might be anxious about math because they want to perform well. The researchers hypothesized that different underlying motivations for these two groups may have different consequences for math learning behaviors and performance.

For the first study, the researchers looked at data from 262 pairs of same-sex twins. The children, about 12 years old on average, completed measures of math anxiety and math motivation. They also completed six tasks aimed at measuring math performance, tapping skills like representing numerical quantities nonverbally and spatially, calculating with fluency, and using quantitative reasoning in problem solving.

The results indicated that there were no differences in math anxiety and math motivation according to age, but they did show that girls tended to have higher math anxiety than boys.

When the researchers investigated math anxiety and math motivation together, a complex pattern of results emerged. For children who reported low levels of math motivation, increases in math anxiety were associated with poorer performance. For children who reported high math motivation, the relationship between math anxiety and performance resembled an inverted U shape: Performance increased with anxiety, reaching peak levels with moderate anxiety. As anxiety increased beyond this midpoint, math performance decreased.

To ensure that these results were robust, the researchers conducted a second study with 237 college students. Again, they found that math anxiety was related to poor math performance among students who reported low math motivation, while students who reported high motivation showed the inverted-U relationship between anxiety and performance.

"These findings suggest that efforts that simply aim to decrease math-anxiety level may not prove effective for all students," says Petrill. "Although math anxiety is detrimental to some children in their math learning, motivation may help overcome the detrimental effects of math anxiety. In particular, for children highly motivated to better learn math moderate level of math anxiety or challenge may actually prove efficacious."

According to Wang and Petrill, the next step in this line of research will be to examine the real-time physiological changes that underlie the complex relationship between math anxiety and math achievement.

来源：中国科技网