Math Anxiety Saps Working Memory Needed To Do Math by Julie Steenhuysen
Worrying about how you'll perform on a math test may actually contribute to a lower test
score.
Feelings of dread and fear keep people away from math. The shunning of math can sap the
brain's working capacity. This is what is used and needed to compute difficult math problems,
said psychologist Mark Ashcroft of the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
"It turns out that math anxiety occupies a person's working memory," according to Ashcroft.
Ashcroft said while easy math tasks such as addition require only a small part of a person's
working memory, strenuous calculations need much more.
Worrying about math takes up a large chunk of a person's working memory. This is a dire
situation for the anxious student who is taking a high-stakes test.
Stress about how one does on tests like college entrance exams can make even good
math students choke. "All of a sudden they start looking for the short cuts," said University of
Chicago researcher Sian Beilock.
Test preparation classes can help students beat this anxiety. However, they are limited to
students whose families can afford them.
Ultimately, she said, "It may not be wise to rely completely on scores to figure out who will
succeed."
While the causes of math anxiety are unknown, Ashcroft said people who manage to
overcome math anxiety have completely normal math proficiency.
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The word choke in paragraph 6 means?

A. look for a short cut.
B. study with motivation.
C. pass with good grades.
D. struggle with the test.