Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff in Mathematics
Unjanee’ Wright
Wright State University
Psychology 3020L-05
TA: Joseph Glavan The purpose of this study is to determine how accurate, and how fast a person can complete a certain amount of math problems within only a few mins; then, determine how this relates to stress. It is important to see how much mathematics a student knows, and how the pressure affects them. Doing this study could decrease students’ anxiety levels when it comes to taking a mathematics test in a timely manner.
Stress is defined as your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand, or the feelings we have when under pressure. Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff is defined as taking your time and only making a few errors, or responding quickly and making more errors. In the manuscript, I will be discussing why I am conducting this study. I will discuss previous studies that has already been done, and how my current study relates to the previous studies. I will be discussing the methods and procedures used for my study, and the results after conducting my study. I will also provide a discussion of my study as well as the implications.
Literature Review Ashcraft and Krause (2007) examined if math anxiety has something to do with a decline in math performance. The researchers collected scores from eighty undergraduates on a math-anxiety test, and a standard math achievement test. The two tests were compared, but the standard math achievement test was rescored by a
Overcoming Math Anxiety by Sheila Tobias, 1995, lays out the groundwork for addressing math related stereotypes and understanding where peoples math anxiety has come from, why it continues, and most importantly, how to start working on overcoming it. A strong theme that continues throughout the book is the issue of gender differences in relation to math anxiety and why from Tobias’s findings and opinion is either true or false. However, the message throughout the book is clear. While math anxiety is a real issue that many suffer from, because of the everyday use of math and the benefits of being competent at using it, we are limiting ourselves by avoiding the subject like the plague and therefore must find ways to move past the anxiety.
Solving math problems is always difficult, however for some students it gives them fear and tension that often leads to math anxiety (Maloney, Beilock, 2015). Math anxiety can begin from primary education and if it is not lowered then it can affect the student for life. When math anxiety increases as people grow they tend to avoid anything that is dealing with numbers. For example, they will avoid budgeting, going over bills, and even affect the way they help their kids in math homework. Teachers and parents play a very important role in the student’s math education. Primarily, a teachers’ way of education math to students can be the reason they dislike or enjoy mathematics.
The chapter examines the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, limitations of the study and conceptual framework adopted for the study.
This story begins with an 8th grader named Michael who gets very anxious and nervous about tests. Math is not Michael’s expertise, and he is in fact, very second-rate at math. What’s particularly disturbing is that his math finals are tomorrow. Because he is very unskilled at math, he is really jumpy about the test. Michael knows that if he does not study for the test and develop a understanding of his troubling subject, he is going to fail the test. Michael’s anxiety about this test stems from fears that if he fails the test, his parents will ground him for life, and worse, he will not move on to high school with his classmates and friends. No matter how hard he studies the tense feelings never go away.
Among the top five academic anxieties (Test Anxiety ~ Math Anxiety), on the average (mean) of Score, Math Anxiety had the lowest Mean score (Funk, 2009). These results are difficult to believe given Funk's previous research and mention about the majority of adults returning to having such high level of math anxiety upon returning to higher education (Funk, 2009).
Furthermore, the study design and methods are very much appropriate for the purposes of the study. The study’s set-up and methods allows the authors to address the aims set in the introduction, and they do so in the discussion and conclusion. In addition, the procedures are thoroughly detailed and allow for reproduction from academic readers. The procedures are listed to such a level that gives the study a strong level of
The purpose of reviewing this literature is to see if there is evidence that there is a correlation between gender and math anxiety and, specifically, whether there is a higher frequency of math anxiety among female students than male students. Current literature shows that there is no difference in actual aptitude for mathematics yet there remains a perception that males are stronger mathematics students (Spelke, 2005).
The researcher of this study clearly, concisely and explicitly indicate their hypotheses regarding the outcome of the research. Particular hypotheses are as follows:
Hembree (1990) also pointed out that females display higher levels of mathematics anxiety than males up to high school. Furthermore, poor performance and avoidance of mathematics caused lower anxiety levels among college male students compared to females. Since Hembree (1990) only focused on high school and college students’ mathematics anxiety in his meta-analysis, it will be difficult to predict about undergraduate students’ anxiety based on his findings.
Math anxiety can affect the education of children by causing them to avoid obtaining educational degrees beyond high school because they are afraid to enroll in college math courses. Since a majority of well-paid jobs require college degrees, anxiety toward learning math affects future career plans. What are the contributing factors of math anxiety in the United States in the past ten years, especially in children and young adults? Math anxiety can be divided into two categories: probable causes and possible solutions.
The authors’ justification of the need for the study, including the degree to which the authors synthesized and critically analyzed existing research to show that this study is the next logical step in the line of research.
This chapter establishes the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, the significance of the study, and the outline of the study.
Rationale for the study (must also cover review of relevant literature and should be about 250 words)
The general focus of this research is to examine performance in standard cognitive frameworks and online tasks. The researchers hope to examine the influence that math anxiety exerts on mathematical cognition and to identify the processing components that are so influenced.
What were the research questions that guided this study? Why is it important to study this topic? What prior research did the authors review to provide context for their study?