Article

2007-02-19 Science & Technology

Math anxiety saps working memory needed to do math

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Posted by anonymous5089 2007-02-19 09:41|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Anxiety saps working memory, full stop; it doesn't particularly matter the specific focus of the anxiety. Perhaps a prescription of valerian tea before approaching the subject would help.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-19 12:48|| 2007-02-19 12:48|| Front Page Top

#2 My answer always has been : no maths (and no efforts in general), so, no anxiety, problem solved. That's how I became to be what I am, that is a very sub-average person... but a mostly harmless one, thank God. No shotgun Angel of Death routine at my workplace until I hit the late 40s/early 50s and realize how hopeless, futureless and desesperate I am, I think.

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-02-19 12:52|| 2007-02-19 12:52|| Front Page Top

#3 Catch-23

Posted by Ebbomoter Spimp9690 2007-02-19 13:05|| 2007-02-19 13:05|| Front Page Top

#4 No prob, I still got plenty of time ahead of me, and access to lot of online Pr0n, so society at large is safe.

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-02-19 13:08|| 2007-02-19 13:08|| Front Page Top

#5 That's what pocket calculators are designed for, I've carried one for about 10 years now, NO Math anxiety whatever.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2007-02-19 13:28|| 2007-02-19 13:28|| Front Page Top

#6 "No one who needs a calculator to solve arithmetic problems should be allowed to use one." That was my philosophy during my teaching days.

Posted by Eric Jablow">Eric Jablow 2007-02-19 16:10|| 2007-02-19 16:10|| Front Page Top

#7 I feel the same way about watches Eric.

Posted by Shipman 2007-02-19 16:46|| 2007-02-19 16:46|| Front Page Top

#8 Something that screws up a lot of tests in "internal dialogue", or talking to yourself. For some reason when people get too focused or unfocused in their concentration, they start talking to themselves, and it snaps them back in the other direction, breaking their concentration.

However, if you can teach yourself to keep your focus longer without the noise, then you do better on tests. The same rule applies to meditation. The first thing they tell people is to stop talking to themselves.

There's a bunch of techniques for doing it.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-02-19 17:07|| 2007-02-19 17:07|| Front Page Top

#9 Trailing daughter #2 tested off the chart gifted for math, and at the moment is taking both geometry and second year algebra at the honours level. She cannot, however, do arithmetic worth a damn, as she's forever misreading numbers and operation signs. A calculator helps somewhat, but we're all looking forward to when she gets to calculus and has symbols instead of numbers to manipulate.

Posted by trailing wife 2007-02-19 18:04|| 2007-02-19 18:04|| Front Page Top

#10 Eric Jablow "No one who needs a calculator to solve arithmetic problems should be allowed to use one." That was my philosophy during my teaching days.

thatr sounds so much like a math word-problem giver me HUGE anxiety.

Posted by RD 2007-02-19 19:30|| 2007-02-19 19:30|| Front Page Top

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