There is a growing consensus that math anxiety highly correlates with trait anxiety and that the emotional component elicited by math anxiety affects math performance. Yet few studies have examined the impact of “specific math anxiety” (high math anxiety and low other kinds of anxiety) on math performance and the underlying physiological and affective mechanism. The present study examines the mediation effect of heart rate variability—an affective measurement indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)—in the relationship between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. A total of 386 junior high school students completed a self-reported questionnaire to measure their anxiety level. Among this sample, 29 individuals with specific math anxiety (high math anxiety and low reading and trait anxiety), 29 with specific reading anxiety (high reading anxiety and low math and trait anxiety), 24 with specific trait anxiety (high trait anxiety and low math and reading anxiety), and 22 controls (low math, trait and reading anxiety) were selected to participate in an arithmetic task and a reading task while RSA was recorded when they performed the tasks. Results revealed that individuals with specific math anxiety showed lower RSA and longer reaction time than the other three groups in the arithmetic task. Regression and mediation analyses further revealed that RSA mediated the relation between specific math anxiety and arithmetic speed. The present study provides the first account of evidence for the affective hypothesis of specific math anxiety and suggests that affective responses may be an important mechanism underlying the detrimental effect of specific math anxiety on math performance.
Background: Visual attention span (VAS) refers to the number of visual elements processed simultaneously in a multielement array. Yet, whether VAS deficits are markers of developmental dyslexia (DD) have not been systematically explored.Aim: The present meta-analysis aimed to investigate the relation between VAS deficits and dyslexia.Methods: A meta-analysis based on 31 articles, 53 independent studies, and 4149 subjects was conducted. Effect sizes for each study were calculated and a random-effect model was selected. Task and stimulus types in the VAS task, writing system, orthographic depth, control group type and age were included as possible moderators. Results: 1) VAS in dyslexic individuals was significantly worse than typically developing individuals, 2) task-stimulus type (report-verbal/n-back-verbal/n-back-non-verbal), writing system (alphabetic vs. Chinese) and control group type (age match vs. reading match) had significant moderating effects. That is, VAS deficits were more severe in verbal stimuli based on report task than in verbal and nonverbal stimuli based on n-back task, VAS deficits were more severe in alphabetic language than in Chinese and VAS deficits were more severe when compared with age matched controls than compared with reading matched controls. Conclusion: VAS deficits may be possible etiologies for DD and moderated by task-stimulus type, writing system and control group type. Implications of these findings regarding the understanding of dyslexia were discussed.
The present study aimed to explore whether phonological deficits in comorbidity of developmental dyscalculia and dyslexia of Chinese children fit into a double dissociation model or a common etiology model. Out of 1675 primary school students in grade 3 and 4 from northwestern China, we identified 61 children with dyscalculia only, 63 children with dyslexia only, 56 children with comorbid dyscalculia and dyslexia, and 59 children as age-matched controls. Phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), visuospatial skills, pattern recognition, and morphological awareness (MA), were assessed for all children from the four groups. Results showed that compared to the controls, the common cognitive deficits of children from the three disability groups were in PA and RAN. The RAN deficits in the comorbid group were less than the addition of that in the dyscalculia group and dyslexia group. However, the PA deficits in the comorbid group were almost the addition of that in the dyscalculia group and dyslexia group. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that the comorbid group could only be distinguished from the dyscalculia/dyslexia group by PA. These results suggest that comorbidity of Chinese developmental dyscalculia and dyslexia fit into common etiology model in RAN deficit and double dissociation model in PA deficit.
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