Spatial processing in a mental rotation task: Differences between high and low math-anxiety individuals

• Published in: Biological psychology Vol. 146; p. 107727
• Main Authors: Núñez-Peña, M. Isabel, González-Gómez, Belén, Colomé, Àngels
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01-09-2019
• Subjects: Anxiety - psychology; Attentional control theory; Decision Making; Electroencephalography; ERPs; Evoked Potentials; Female; Humans; Imagination - physiology; Math anxiety; Mathematics; Neuropsychological Tests; P3b; Reaction Time; Rotation; Rotation-related negativity; Spatial processing; Spatial Processing - physiology; Young Adult; ERPs; Spatial processing; Attentional control theory; Math anxiety; Rotation-related negativity; P3b
• ISSN: 0301-0511; 1873-6246
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107727

•High and low math-anxious people differ in response time but not in accuracy.•A larger P3b is elicited in rotated stimuli in highly math-anxious individuals.•Highly math-anxious people may devote more attentional effort to spatial tasks.
Previous studies suggested that highly math-anxious (HMA) individuals invest more attentional resources than their low math-anxious (LMA) peers in numerical tasks, and have worse spatial skills. We aimed to explore whether they also need to apply more resources in spatial tasks. In this study, HMA and LMA individuals saw normal or mirror-reversed letters in six orientations and made mirror-normal decisions. In both groups, response times and errors increased with angular deviation from upright and the ERP mental rotation effect was found. However, HMAs were slower to respond than their LMA counterparts. Interestingly, the HMA group showed a larger P3b in greater deviations for normal letters and in all mirrored letters. Since P3b amplitude reflects the attentional resources invested in the categorization of relevant stimuli, HMA individuals may need to devote more processing effort than their LMA peers when performing mental rotation. This finding is consistent with the Attentional Control Theory.