The Emotional Stroop Paradigm: Performance as a Function of Stimulus Properties and Self-Reported Mathematics Anxiety

Stroop tasks are considered useful in assessing anxious affect. Although symptomatically mathematics anxiety is similar to other anxiety conditions, demonstrating a Stroop interference effect among individuals with math anxiety has proven difficult. High and low math anxious individuals were administered a Stroop-like card task involving the counting of numerals and letters, along with a standard computer-based Stroop color-naming task using mathematical and neutral control words. On the card task, processing time was significantly longer among high math anxious participants, an effect most pronounced in the numeral condition. Response time did not differ on the standard Stroop color-naming task as a function of anxiety group or word type. Results suggest that interference effects of math anxiety may be a function of inhibitory deficits or excitatory processes (or both) that are compounded when exposed to more salient (i.e. numeric) stimuli. Implications regarding the assessment of mathematics anxiety and Stroop task methodology are discussed.

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