RESEARCH ARTICLE
Exploring the Possibility of Measuring Mathematical Anxiety in f-NIRS-based NIRSIT
Bohyun Min1, Doyeon Ahn2, Kwangho Lee3*, Taekwon Son4
1Hagil Elementary School
2Cheonanchungdang Elementary School
3Korea National University of Education
4Bongmyeong Elementary School
Correspondence to paransol@knue.ac.kr
Brain, Digital, & Learning. Volume 12, Number 4, 713–727, December 2022. https://doi.org/10.31216/BDL.20220044
Received on November 18, 2022, Revised on December 5, 2022, Accepted on December 5, 2022, Published on December 31, 2022.
Copyright © 2022. Institute of Brain based Education, Korea National University of Education This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
In this study, using NIRSIT based on f-NIRS, a task was created to develop a math anxiety test tool that can measure the difference in brain activity according to the level of math anxiety of participants. The purpose of this study is to secure the possibility of using a new device as a math anxiety test tool, and the reliability of the f-NIRS-based measurement task developed. The participants were divided into two groups according to the level of math anxiety, and the brain activity according to the level of math anxiety was measured using the NIRSIT device. Based on the measured data, brain activity was measured within and between the two groups with different math anxiety levels, and the correlation with the self-report survey score was analyzed. As a result of the study, there was a significant difference in brain activity within and between the two groups. In addition, a significant correlation was found between self-report survey scores and brain activity. This suggests that the measurement method using NIRSIT can be a new discrimination tool that can objectively and quantitatively measure math anxiety. Therefore, if the test method using f-NIRS-based NIRSIT is applied to various ages in the future, It can be used to diagnose math anxiety in students early.
Keywords
Math anxiety, math anxiety measurement tool, f-NIRS, NIRSIT, cognitive neurology