Positive Mood and Math Performance

Two studies are reported that assessed the impact of positive moods on students' feelings of self-efficacy and math performance. In the first study, 32 black and Hispanic girls and boys in the third to fifth grades, who had been identified by teachers as at risk for school failure, and a control sample of normally achieving classmates served as subjects. In the second study, 15 males and 3 females in junior high and high school attending a private school for students with learning disabilities served as subjects. In both studies, students were randomly assigned to a positive-mood induction condition or a no-treatment control condition. Following this, they completed a measure of self-efficacy for math and were then given 5 minutes to do 50 math problems. In both studies, analyses of covariance using standardized math scores as the adjustor variable found that children in the positive-mood condition completed significantly more problems accurately than children in the no-treatment control condition. In addition, in the junior high and high school sample, students in the positive-mood induction condition expressed greater self-efficacy for math than students in the control condition. The results of these two studies raise many questions about the role of affect, positive and negative, in the learning and performance of students with learning disabilities that researchers and teachers might explore.