Christina Artemenko

Arithmetic skills are important to navigate everyday tasks and to successfully engage in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Among the factors supporting these skills, lower math anxiety and higher math self-concept show consistent associations with better performance. However, the effect size of these associations is heterogeneous, and the factors that contribute to this variability are still not fully understood. Most of the studies on adults were conducted among psychology students, who may not be representative of the whole population and do not consider the different importance that mathematics plays for individuals’ careers. Therefore, the present study investigated whether the relation of arithmetic performance to math anxiety and math self-concept varies between university programs with different levels of math load. 836 German university students were included in the present online study. They completed self-report questionnaires to assess math anxiety and math self-concept and a timed arithmetic task. We found that arithmetic performance is negatively associated with math anxiety and positively with math self-concept overall, but the size of this association is different across math loads of the individuals’ study programs. Specifically, these associations were considerably stronger among students in university programs with low math load compared to students in programs with high math load. We conclude that the math load of the university program is a factor to take into account, as results from students of a particular subject (e.g., psychology) are not representative of the relationship of math anxiety and math self-concept with math performance and should not be overgeneralized. Specifically, those individuals whose negative attitudes do not translate to lower performance are the ones likely to be enrolled in math intense programs.

Arithmetic processing is represented in a fronto-parietal network of the brain. However, activation within this network is thought to undergo a developmental shift from domain-general cognitive processing in the frontal cortex towards domain-specific magnitude processing in the parietal cortex. This assumption is primarily based on findings in children and young adults. In this registered report, we set out to replicate the proposed gradual fronto-parietal activation shift in arithmetic processing and, for the first time, to explore how neural development of arithmetic continues during aging. This registered report focuses on the behavioral and neural correlates of arithmetic and arithmetic complexity across the lifespan, i.e., childhood, when arithmetic is first learned; young adulthood, when arithmetic skills are well established already, and old age, when individuals have lifelong arithmetic experience. Therefore, brain activation during mental arithmetic was measured in children, younger adults, and older adults using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Arithmetic complexity was manipulated via carry and borrow operations in two-digit addition and subtraction. The results provide evidence that increasing arithmetic complexity is associated with increased activation in the fronto-parietal network across all age groups. Even though behavioral carry and borrow effects decrease during development, suggesting improvements in place-value processing, the underlying categorical and continuous processing characteristics and cortical activation remain relatively stable. While frontal activation may decrease from childhood to adulthood, parietal activation does not show a corresponding increase. Thus, the developmental fronto-parietal shift in arithmetic processing might only apply to single-digit arithmetic – but not to two-digit arithmetic across the lifespan. Overall, these results suggest that arithmetic skills acquired in childhood are maintained throughout the lifespan.

Elderly people and patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) rely on arithmetic skills to lead an independent life. Activities such as medication management, financial transactions or using public transport require intact abilities to manipulate numbers with different arithmetic operations. However, research on cognitive deficits in PD has focussed on domain-general functions such as executive functions, attention or working memory so far – largely neglecting potential domain-specific aspects of numerical cognition (e.g., carry or problem size effect). These aspects should be addressed, as PD-immanent deterioration of domain-specific numerical areas and domain-general functions suggests mechanisms of both primary and secondary (mediated by other cognitive deficits) arithmetic deficits, respectively. The current study systematically investigated arithmetic performance and effects in PD patients differing in cognitive impairment for the first time, targeting domain-specific cognitive representations of arithmetic as well as the influence of domain-general factors. Besides healthy controls (HC), PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC) and PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) were compared in arithmetic performance in the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). The deficits consisted of problems in two-digit addition and subtraction in PD-MCI, as well as delayed arithmetic fact retrieval for single-digit multiplication and division in PD-NC and PD-MCI. Deficits were not domain-specific, as arithmetic effects (problem size, carry, and borrow effects) did not differ between the groups. Discriminant analyses showed that performance in addition, multiplication and division tasks could differentiate between PD-NC and PD-MCI. The study results help us to understand the underlying mechanisms of arithmetic deficits faced by PD patients in daily life.

Statistics anxiety is widely recognised as a barrier to student learning, and the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) is its most widely used self-report measure. However, it remains unclear whether the STARS captures a construct distinct from mathematics anxiety or reflects a jangle fallacy. Using a large international sample of undergraduate students (N = 6,885) from 83 universities across 33 countries, we examined the empirical distinctiveness of the STARS relative to the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (R-MARS). Across four criteria, the evidence indicated substantial overlap. First, correlations between the STARS and R-MARS were consistently strong. Second, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that items clustered primarily by type of educational experience (e.g., tests, help-seeking, interpretation) rather than by domain, with limited and unstable domain-specific factors. Third, both scales demonstrated statistically equivalent associations with 11 theoretically related anxiety and education variables. Fourth, the R-MARS explained negligible incremental variance beyond the STARS across these outcomes. Together, the findings suggest that the STARS and R-MARS largely measure the same underlying construct. Their continued separate use risks redundancy, conceptual fragmentation, and statistical artefacts, underscoring the need for clearer construct definition and more precise measurement tools.

Elderly people and patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) immensely rely on arithmetic skills to lead an independent life. Activities such as medication management, financial transactions or using public transport require intact abilities to manipulate numbers with different arithmetic operations. However, research on cognitive deficits in PD has been focussing on domain-general functions such as executive functions, attention or working memory so far – largely neglecting potential domain-specific aspects of numerical cognition (e.g., carry or problem size effect). These aspects should be addressed, as PD-immanent deterioration of domain-specific numerical areas and domain-general functions suggests mechanisms of both primary and secondary (mediated by other cognitive deficits) arithmetic deficits, respectively. The current study systematically investigated arithmetic performance and effects in PD patients differing in cognitive impairment for the first time, targeting domain-specific cognitive representations of arithmetic as well as the influence of domain-general factors. Besides healthy controls (HC), PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC) and PD patients with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) were compared in arithmetic performance in the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). The deficits consisted of problems in two-digit addition and subtraction and PD-MCI, as well as delayed arithmetic fact retrieval for single-digit multiplication and division in PD-NC and PD-MCI. Deficits were not domain-specific, as arithmetic effects (problem size, carry, and borrow effects) did not differ between the groups. Discriminant analyses showed that performance in addition, multiplication and division tasks could differentiate between PD-NC and PD-MCI. The study results help us to understand the underlying mechanisms of arithmetic deficits faced by PD patients in daily life.

Arithmetic processing is represented in a fronto-parietal network of the brain. However, activation within this network is thought to undergo a developmental shift from domain-general cognitive processing in the frontal cortex towards domain-specific magnitude processing in the parietal cortex. This assumption is primarily based on findings in children and young adults. In this registered report, we set out to replicate the proposed fronto-parietal activation shift in arithmetic processing and, for the first time, to explore how neural development of arithmetic continues during aging. This registered report focuses on the behavioral and neural correlates of arithmetic and arithmetic complexity across the lifespan, i.e., childhood, when arithmetic is first learned; young adulthood, when arithmetic skills are well established already, and old age, when individuals have lifelong arithmetic experience. Therefore, brain activation during mental arithmetic was measured in children, younger adults, and older adults using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Arithmetic complexity was manipulated via carry and borrow operations in two-digit addition and subtraction. The results provide evidence that increasing arithmetic complexity is associated with increased activation in the fronto-parietal network across all age groups. Even though behavioral carry and borrow effects decrease during development, suggesting improvements in place-value processing, the underlying categorical and continuous processing characteristics and brain activation remain relatively stable. Thus, this study provides evidence against a developmental fronto-parietal shift in arithmetic processing across the lifespan. While frontal activation may decrease from childhood to adulthood, parietal activation does not show a corresponding increase. Overall, these results suggest that arithmetic skills acquired in childhood are maintained throughout the lifespan.

Arithmetic skills are crucial for mastering everyday life up to old age. However, it is unknown whether the interplay of different task characteristics affects arithmetic performance differently in older and younger adults. The aim of this study was to investigate whether older adults show deficits in arithmetic fact retrieval besides general slowing. Older (≥ 60 years) and younger adults (18 – 34 years) solved single-digit arithmetic problems in a verbal production paradigm. Arithmetic performance and strategy use were assessed for all four basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), varying in problem size (small vs. large). Older adults were slower than younger adults in all operations except multiplication. Older adults were able to preserve a similar problem size effect, as they used fast retrieval strategies more often than younger adults to solve large single-digit problems (except for division). While older adults can retrieve arithmetic facts equally well as younger adults, they are slower when using procedural strategies. Overall, this study suggests that older adults do not show deficits in arithmetic fact retrieval but their arithmetic fact knowledge is even superior to that of younger adults and therefore can compensate for some of the age-related domain-general cognitive deficits.

Math anxiety differs between individuals, with some being more anxious about math than others. Anxiety research distinguishes between a trait component – how anxious an individual typically feels (differences between individuals) – and a state component – how anxious an individual feels in a specific moment (differences between situations). This raises the question whether math anxiety has a state component as well. However, research on state math anxiety is scarce. Here, we set out to develop an instrument to assess state math anxiety in adults and to characterize the relation between state and trait math anxiety to math performance. The resulting state math anxiety scale (SMA) is a reliable and valid instrument. Importantly, state math anxiety depended on the math situation: State math anxiety was higher when solving difficult as compared to simple arithmetic problems. The pilot study suggested that this difficulty-related increase in state math anxiety was more pronounced for individuals with higher trait math anxiety. However, after controlling various traits in the main study, test anxiety was the decisive trait. Although anxiety and performance both depend on task difficulty, the difficulty-related differences were not related and predicted by different traits. Namely, the difficulty-related drop in math performance was larger for individuals with lower math self-concept. In conclusion, the differentiation between state and trait math anxiety is essential and closely interacts with emotional (test anxiety) and cognitive factors (math self-concept). In addition to trait measures, we recommend using state measures like the SMA to capture situational changes in math anxiety.