Mathematics anxiety is often defined as a state of discomfort concerning the performance of mathematical tasks. Researches posit that such circumstances cause stress and have a negative impact on academics (Hubbard & Byler, 2006). This is important because being overstressed inhibits one’s use of their working memory (WM) and attention. As you will recall WM is theorized to have limited capacity. It holds information before we commit it to long-term memory. In this scenario WM holds the symbols, operators, and variables that we manipulate to solve mathematical problems. Attention pertains to one’s ability to block out irrelevant feelings such fear and worry that hinder the storage and retrieval of information that creates knowledge.
The good news is that ordinary people have successfully used stress management techniques to perform well under stressful conditions. You can too. These techniques lessen the formerly mentioned WM and attentional challenges. Scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of these techniques in various academic settings. The use of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) has demonstrated significant positive results in controlling stress and anxiety regarding math performance. PMR is a technique that involves tensing and relaxing specific muscle groups in a specific order to decrease the physiological aspects of anxiety while distracting people from their awareness of anxious feelings.
The results of several studies suggest that PMR improves a person’s ability to focus their attention on a central task and execute its required operation while inhibiting unrelated info. PMR training is an effective technique for the reduction of tension, anxiety, and physiological arousal that are associated with math anxiety. The next time you feel anxious about performing a math task try PMR to improve your performance. Here is a sample PMR script for your review.
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