Non-symbolic representation is modulated by math anxiety and cognitive inhibition while symbolic representation not

The present study aimed to investigate whether there are basic numerical processing deficits in high math anxiety (HMA) individuals and examine the effects of cognitive inhibition on the performance of high and low math anxiety (LMA) individuals. 35 undergraduate students were recruited to perform a numerical comparison task, a numerical Stroop task, a dot comparison task, and a dot Stroop task. Results showed the following: (1) Compared with LMA group, HMA group reacted more slowly and exhibited more fixation counts in non-symbolic representation task. (2) Inhibition condition significantly increased HMA individuals’ fixation durations, whereas the fixation durations of LMA individuals were similar between inhibition and non-inhibition condition. The results demonstrated that MA might temporarily occupy individuals’ working memory resources. (3) In non-symbolic representation task, the effect of numerical ratio on fixation counts was larger for HMA group than that for LMA group under inhibition condition, indicating MA might arise from a basic level deficit in numerosity processing.