Learning to be inventive in the face of statistics: A positive reappraisal intervention for statistics anxiety.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The burden of statistics anxiety on students calls for effective interventions. This study investigated whether a cognitive reappraisal training designed to stimulate the generation of positive re-interpretations may yield behavioral changes in anxiety measures and changes in cerebral activation patterns reflecting the activation of approach/avoidance motivational tendencies (frontal EEG alpha asymmetry response). METHODS: Three groups of female psychology students (n = 45) with statistics anxiety were tested. Two groups received a guided, two-week reappraisal training with either statistics-anxiety or general anxiety situations; the control group received no intervention. RESULTS: Both training groups significantly increased their amount of positive re-interpretations from pre-to post-test compared to the control group. Increased habitual use of reappraisal in statistics situations and significant EEG changes reflecting more approach-oriented coping with anxiety occurred in the statistics-anxiety training group only. No changes in statistics anxiety and statistics attitudes were observed, suggesting that the training effects, though corroborated through neurophysiological changes, did not sufficiently translate to improving students' deep-rooted anxiety. LIMITATIONS: Effects, though robust and following the same pattern, were observed in a small sample. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings delineate a promising expandable approach for helping students' cope with statistics anxiety in a healthier way.

Good performance in difficult times? Threat and challenge as contributors to achievement emotions and academic performance during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as one of the most formidable global crises, leading to the disruptions to education systems worldwide and impacting learning attitudes and psychological well-being of various learner groups, including university students. In this context, students' appraisals of adverse learning situations play a key role. It is not just the learning situation, but rather students' appraisal of it which impacts their emotions, attitudes, and behaviors in academic context. The aim of the present study was to investigate how university students' challenge and threat appraisals were related to emotional learning experiences and learning outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the study focuses on the role of personal and external resources for learning in this context. Methods: Altogether, 428 students, who attended a Psychology lecture at one Austrian university, filled in a questionnaire about their challenge and threat appraisals of learning circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, achievement emotions they experienced during this time as well as gender, proneness to anxiety, academic self-concept, and learning resources. Additionally, students' performance in the examination was recorded. Results: The structural equation model emphasizes a crucial role of challenge and threat appraisals for students' achievement emotions in learning and exam preparation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenge appraisals were the strongest predictor for pleasant emotions and threat appraisals were strongest predictor for unpleasant emotions. Proneness to anxiety was related to threat appraisal as well as to experience of more unpleasant and, surprisingly, to positive emotions in adverse learning situation. Academic self-concept and learning resources were identified as important resources for learning in adverse learning situation. Unpleasant achievement emotions were directly and negatively related to academic performance and may thus be seen as a critical variable and crucial obstacle to academic performance. Discussion: The present study provides implications for learning and instructions which could be implemented by universities in order to support learning and learning attitudes among university students in adverse learning situations.

Learning in Adverse Circumstances: Impaired by Learning With Anxiety, Maladaptive Cognitions, and Emotions, but Supported by Self-Concept and Motivation.

The COVID-19 summer semester 2020 posed many challenges and uncertainties, quite unexpectedly and suddenly. In a sample of 314 psychology students, it was investigated how they experienced learning and preparing for an end-of-semester exam, which emotions and strain they experienced, how academic performance was affected, and how personal antecedents of learning as important facets of a learner's identity could support or prevent overcoming adverse circumstances of learning. The participants of the study filled in a questionnaire about their achievement emotions and strain they experienced during learning and exam preparation as well as academic self-concept, motivation, gender, proneness to anxiety. Points achieved in the exam were also recorded. The interaction between the variables was investigated by a structural equation model. It showed that the investigated variables can be distinguished into two groups, variables that contribute mainly negatively to performance and variables with a positive contribution. Strain experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and unpleasant emotions "belong together" in the sense that they inhibit academic performance directly or indirectly. Proneness to anxiety in academic situations was related with higher levels of mental, emotional, and physical disturbances due to the COVID-19 situation. In contrast, motivation and a high academic self-concept acted as support for learning and performance. Both contribute to pleasant achievement emotions in the learning situation; moreover, motivation had a direct relationship to academic performance. The results from the present study do not only provide insight into important students' personal dispositions and their role for learning in adverse circumstances but also give advice how to strengthen students for successful learning.

Effects of Touchscreen Media Use on Toddlers' Sleep: Insights from Longtime ECG Monitoring.

Wearable biomedical sensor technology enables reliable monitoring of physiological data, even in very young children. The purpose of the present study was to develop algorithms for gaining valid physiological indicators of sleep quality in toddlers, using data from an undisturbing and easy-to-use wearable device. The study further reports the application of this technique to the investigation of potential impacts of early touchscreen media use. Toddlers' touchscreen media use is of strong interest for parents, educators, and researchers. Mostly, negative effects of media use are assumed, among them, disturbances of sleep and impairments of learning and development. In 55 toddlers (32 girls, 23 boys; 27.4 ± 4.9 months; range: 16-37 months), ECG monitoring was conducted for a period of 30 (±3) h. Parents were asked about their children's touchscreen media use and they rated their children's sleep quality. The use of touchscreen media predicted the physiologically determined quality of sleep but not parent-reported sleep quality (such as sleep onset latency). Greater heart rate differences between restless sleep phases and restful sleep indicated poorer nighttime recovery in children with more frequent use of touchscreen media. The study demonstrates that the expert analysis of the ECG during sleep is a potent tool for the estimation of sleep quality in toddlers.

It's a Challenge, Not a Threat: Lecturers' Satisfaction During the Covid-19 Summer Semester of 2020.

The summer semester had just begun at Austrian and German universities when Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. Thus, in March 2020, all universities closed their campuses, switching to distance learning within the span of about a single day. How did lecturers handle the situation? Were they still able to turn the situation into a positive one? What were the main obstacles with this difficult situation, and where there conditions which helped them to overcome the new challenges? These are research questions of the present survey with a sample of 1,152 lecturers at universities in Austria and Germany. The survey focuses on the lecturers' appraisals of the novel situation as challenging or threatful. These appraisals are important for approaching a situation or shying away from it. However, how well a person adjusts to a novel situation is also influenced by personal and environmental resources which help to overcome the situation. The present survey focused on four possible sources of influence: internal assessments of the situation determining it to be threatening and/or challenging, personal resources, attitudes, and support by the organization. It was investigated to which degree these sources of influence could contribute to the lecturers' satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with their teaching processes. A multiple regression with three criterion variables describing university lecturers' perceived satisfaction with distance teaching was carried out. Predictor variables were the lecturers' appraisals of challenge and threat, perceived support by the university and sense of belonging to the university, temporal resources, proficiency in using digital technologies, length of teaching experience, and gender. Lecturers were mostly satisfied with their teaching activities. Together with the perception of a low threat potential, challenge appraisals contributed strongest to satisfaction. In comparison, assessments of actual personal resources, skills in the use of digital technologies, teaching experience, and temporal resources were important but contributed less to satisfaction than challenge appraisals. It seems that lecturers were only able to use these resources when the technological resources were available and when the lecturers were confident in their technical abilities.

How to Use Heart Rate Variability: Quantification of Vagal Activity in Toddlers and Adults in Long-Term ECG.

Recent developments in noninvasive electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring with small, wearable sensors open the opportunity to record high-quality ECG over many hours in an easy and non-burdening way. However, while their recording has been tremendously simplified, the interpretation of heart rate variability (HRV) data is a more delicate matter. The aim of this paper is to supply detailed methodological discussion and new data material in order to provide a helpful notice of HRV monitoring issues depending on recording conditions and study populations. Special consideration is given to the monitoring over long periods, across periods with different levels of activity, and in adults versus children. Specifically, the paper aims at making users aware of neglected methodological limitations and at providing substantiated recommendations for the selection of appropriate HRV variables and their interpretation. To this end, 30-h HRV data of 48 healthy adults (18-40 years) and 47 healthy toddlers (16-37 months) were analyzed in detail. Time-domain, frequency-domain, and nonlinear HRV variables were calculated after strict signal preprocessing, using six different high-frequency band definitions including frequency bands dynamically adjusted for the individual respiration rate. The major conclusion of the in-depth analyses is that for most applications that implicate long-term monitoring across varying circumstances and activity levels in healthy individuals, the time-domain variables are adequate to gain an impression of an individual's HRV and, thus, the dynamic adaptation of an organism's behavior in response to the ever-changing demands of daily life. The sound selection and interpretation of frequency-domain variables requires considerably more consideration of physiological and mathematical principles. For those who prefer using frequency-domain variables, the paper provides detailed guidance and recommendations for the definition of appropriate frequency bands in compliance with their specific recording conditions and study populations.

Influences Of Different Dimensions Of Academic Self-Concept On Students' Cardiac Recovery After Giving A Stressful Presentation.

PURPOSE: Giving a presentation in a seminar is a strenuous academic situation. To meet such a challenge adequately, individuals not only have to activate their mental and physical resources, but they also have to disengage from the task and recover once the challenge has been met. How students experience these situations depends in part on how they recover from the stress, and this has putative impact on their longer-term academic well-being. METHODS: In a sample of 68 university students, the present study investigated the impact of four dimensions of students' academic self-concept on how efficiently students recovered after a challenging presentation in a university seminar. Recovery was assessed using psychophysiological measures; heart rate and heart rate variability were investigated. Higher levels of students' social self-concept (self-concept depending on social comparison) were linked to poorer recovery from the challenge, whereas higher levels of absolute self-concept (independent of external criteria) were associated with more efficient recovery. RESULTS: The findings suggest that a focus on one's own abilities (ie, internal performance standard) is linked to more adaptive patterns of responses to challenging situations, while the focus on social comparisons seems to hamper adaptive coping with academic stress. CONCLUSION: These findings have consequences not only for learning and instruction but also for students' health and well-being.

Trait positive affect and students' prefrontal EEG alpha asymmetry responses during a simulated exam situation.

Affective dispositions may shape students' typical ways of coping when faced with demanding performance situations in their educational lives. We recorded frontal EEG alpha asymmetry responses in psychology students (n = 62) during the course of a scenario designed to simulate a real examination, which required oral explanation of statistical concepts. While students with lower levels of trait positive affect (PANAS) showed relative right hemispheric activation, sustained relative left hemispheric activation was observed in students with higher levels of trait positive affect. In line with relevant models of frontal brain asymmetry, the findings suggest that students' coping behaviors in the context of academic performance situations are in part instantaneously initiated, which is reflected in spontaneous activation of relative approach versus avoidance motivation. Independently of negative affect and momentary affective states, trait positive affectivity seems to be linked to recruitment of brain processes supporting a more adaptive response in that matter.

Self-Concept and Support Experienced in School as Key Variables for the Motivation of Women Enrolled in STEM Subjects With a Low and Moderate Proportion of Females.

The proportion of women enrolled in STEM courses at university level has remained consistently low for decades. Differences, however, exist between various STEM domains: While engineering and technology appear especially unattractive, subjects such as mathematics, biology, or chemistry have better chances at attracting women. Research has mostly neglected these differences, treating STEM as an overall category. In the light of the differences in the proportions of women enrolled in and dropping out of various STEM subjects, the present study takes a more differentiated look to separately investigate the STEM subjects that have a low or moderate proportion of females. The following study focuses on female university students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in these two groups of STEM subjects, asking to what degree the academic STEM self-concept and support experienced in both school and the family contribute to the motivation to study a STEM topic. Four hundred sixty-nine female students took part in the investigation. Two hundred eighty-four of them were enrolled in STEM subjects with a low proportion of females (STEM-LPF) and 185 in STEM subjects with a moderate proportion of females (STEM-MPF). A comparison of the two samples shows that women in STEM-LPF exceed women in STEM-MPF with regard to their academic STEM self-concept and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Different variables contribute to motivation in the two samples. For STEM-LPF, a latent regression analysis found positive relationships between the academic STEM self-concept and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, while support experienced in school and from the family was not related to motivation. By contrast, in the STEM-MPF sample, the academic self-concept was not related to motivation. Previous interest in STEM subjects in school contributed positively to present intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. An unexpected result, however, was found concerning activities in school that were designed to promote interest in STEM. Memories of these kinds of activities were negatively related to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. These measures might be experienced as intrusive support: attempts to promote STEM sometimes might backfire and achieve the opposite of what was intended.

Goal Orientations and Activation of Approach Versus Avoidance Motivation While Awaiting an Achievement Situation in the Laboratory.

While some students try to give their best in an achievement situation, others show disengagement and just want to get the situation over and done with. The present study investigates the role of students' tendencies for approach or avoidance motivation while anticipating tasks and the corresponding activation of the approach/avoidance motivational system as indicated by transient changes of EEG alpha asymmetry. Overall, 62 students (50 female; age: M = 23.8, SD = 3.5) completed a goal orientation questionnaire (learning goals, performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and work avoidance). They joined a laboratory experiment where EEG was recorded during resting condition as well as when students were anticipating tasks. Standard multiple regression analysis showed that higher values on performance-avoidance were related to a higher activation of the approach system whereas higher values on work avoidance were related to a higher activation of the avoidance system. Results question present assumptions about avoidance related goal orientations.

Spotlight on math anxiety.

Anxiety disorders are some of the most widespread mental health issues worldwide. In educational settings, individuals may suffer from specific forms of test and performance anxiety that are connected to a knowledge domain. Unquestionably, the most prominent of these is math anxiety. Math anxiety is a widespread problem for all ages across the globe. In the international assessments of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies, a majority of adolescents report worry and tension in math classes and when doing math. To understand how math anxiety takes effect, it has to be regarded as a variable within an ensemble of interacting variables. There are antecedents that facilitate the development of math anxiety. They concern environmental factors such as teachers' and parents' attitudes toward their students' and children's ability in math, societal stereotypes (eg, on females' math abilities), or personal factors such as traits or gender. These antecedents influence a number of variables that are important in learning processes. Math anxiety interacts with variables such as self-efficacy or motivation in math, which can intensify or counteract math anxiety. Outcomes of math anxiety concern not only performance in math-related situations, they can also have long-term effects that involve efficient (or not-so-efficient) learning as well as course and even vocational choices. How can math anxiety be counteracted? A first step lies in its correct diagnosis. Questionnaires for the assessment of math anxiety exist for all age groups, starting at primary education level. Help against math anxiety can be offered on different levels: by educational institutions, by teachers and a change in instructional approaches, by parents, or by the affected person. However, much more research is needed to develop effective measures against math anxiety that are tailored to an individual's characteristics and needs.

Aggressive behavior after social exclusion is linked with the spontaneous initiation of more action-oriented coping immediately following the exclusion episode.

The experience of social exclusion may provoke prosocial, avoidant, or antisocial (aggressive) behaviors. Multiple situational and personal factors seem to affect which course of action people adopt, and to which degree. The present study examined the relevance of the most spontaneous initiation of more passive, avoidant (disengagement) or action-oriented (engagement) coping immediately following a social exclusion experience to subsequent aggressive behavior. In a sample of n = 85 healthy female students, an ostensible discussion group excluded (versus included) the participant on the basis of her personal traits and preferences. The dynamics of heart rate changes immediately following the social exclusion episode yielded information on the most spontaneous preparation for passive, avoidant coping (sustained heart rate deceleration, indicating temporary behavioral inhibition and vigilance, "freezing") or action-oriented coping (heart rate acceleration, indicating mobilization for action, "fighting"). Aggressive tendencies following social exclusion were assessed using the hot sauce paradigm. On average, social exclusion was followed by heart rate deceleration, indicating the spontaneous drive to avoid directly dealing with the threat (F(time by condition) = 3.3, p = .017, η2 = 0.038). A less pronounced cardiac slowing or even accelerative response to the exclusion, however, was associated with more subsequent aggressive behavior (r = 0.35, p = .023). The results indicate that individual differences in exclusion-related antisocial responding are in part already initiated instantaneously following the exclusion experience, before conscious interpretation and regulation efforts can take effect and modulate the behavioral outcome. The findings point to a potentially important factor that, in concert with other determinants, may explain interindividual differences in changes of social behavior following the experience of social exclusion.

Subtypes in clinical burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program: differences in burnout profiles, depression, and recovery/resources-stress balance.

BACKGROUND: Burnout is generally perceived a unified disorder with homogeneous symptomatology across people (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy). However, increasing evidence points to intra-individual patterns of burnout symptoms in non-clinical samples such as students, athletes, healthy, and burned-out employees. Different burnout subtypes might therefore exist. Yet, burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles have hardly been explored in clinical patients, and the samples investigated in previous studies were rather heterogeneous including patients with various physical, psychological, and social limitations, symptoms, and disabilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore burnout subtypes based on burnout profiles in clinically diagnosed burnout patients enrolled in an employee rehabilitation program, and to investigate whether the subtypes differ in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics. METHODS: One hundred three patients (66 women, 37 men) with a clinical burnout diagnosis, who were enrolled in a 5 week employee rehabilitation program in two specialized psychosomatic clinics in Austria, completed a series of questionnaires including the Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey (MBI-GS), the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Recovery-Stress-Questionnaire for Work. Cluster analyses with the three MBI-GS subscales as clustering variables were used to identify the burnout subtypes. Subsequent multivariate/univariate analysis of variance and Pearson chi-square tests were performed to investigate differences in depression, recovery/resources-stress balance, and sociodemographic characteristics. RESULTS: Three different burnout subtypes were discovered: the exhausted subtype, the exhausted/cynical subtype, and the burned-out subtype. The burned-out subtype and the exhausted/cynical subtype showed both more severe depression symptoms and a worse recovery/resources-stress balance than the exhausted subtype. Furthermore, the burned-out subtype was more depressed than the exhausted/cynical subtype, but no difference was observed between these two subtypes with regard to perceived stress, recovery, and resources. Sociodemographic characteristics were not associated with the subtypes. CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicates that there are different subtypes in clinical burnout patients (exhausted, exhausted/cynical, and burned-out), which might represent patients at different developmental stages in the burnout cycle. Future studies need to replicate the current findings, investigate the stability of the symptom patterns, and examine the efficacy of rehabilitation interventions in different subtypes.

Mathematics Anxiety and Statistics Anxiety. Shared but Also Unshared Components and Antagonistic Contributions to Performance in Statistics.

In many social science majors, e.g., psychology, students report high levels of statistics anxiety. However, these majors are often chosen by students who are less prone to mathematics and who might have experienced difficulties and unpleasant feelings in their mathematics courses at school. The present study investigates whether statistics anxiety is a genuine form of anxiety that impairs students' achievements or whether learners mainly transfer previous experiences in mathematics and their anxiety in mathematics to statistics. The relationship between mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety, their relationship to learning behaviors and to performance in a statistics examination were investigated in a sample of 225 undergraduate psychology students (164 women, 61 men). Data were recorded at three points in time: At the beginning of term students' mathematics anxiety, general proneness to anxiety, school grades, and demographic data were assessed; 2 weeks before the end of term, they completed questionnaires on statistics anxiety and their learning behaviors. At the end of term, examination scores were recorded. Mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety correlated highly but the comparison of different structural equation models showed that they had genuine and even antagonistic contributions to learning behaviors and performance in the examination. Surprisingly, mathematics anxiety was positively related to performance. It might be that students realized over the course of their first term that knowledge and skills in higher secondary education mathematics are not sufficient to be successful in statistics. Part of mathematics anxiety may then have strengthened positive extrinsic effort motivation by the intention to avoid failure and may have led to higher effort for the exam preparation. However, via statistics anxiety mathematics anxiety also had a negative contribution to performance. Statistics anxiety led to higher procrastination in the structural equation model and, therefore, contributed indirectly and negatively to performance. Furthermore, it had a direct negative impact on performance (probably via increased tension and worry in the exam). The results of the study speak for shared but also unique components of statistics anxiety and mathematics anxiety. They are also important for instruction and give recommendations to learners as well as to instructors.

The Impact of Gender Stereotypes on the Self-Concept of Female Students in STEM Subjects with an Under-Representation of Females.

It's possible to assume that women who study STEM topics with a low proportion of females have successfully overcome barriers in school and the family, making them less prone to stereotypic views, and influences. The present study focuses on these kinds of factors and analyzes to which degree family factors, school-related factors, and individual stereotypes may influence a woman's academic self-concept. The following study presents a latent regression model which is based on a survey of 296 women from different German universities, all of whom are part of STEM programs of study that have <30% females. It was investigated to which degree individual stereotypes, support in school, and family support contribute to the self-concept in STEM. Gender stereotypes were negatively related to students' STEM-specific self-concept in the selected sample. This study also reveals negative family-related influences that lower a woman's self-concept. Positive predictors on the other hand included school aspects that are found in the students' favorite subjects at school. The results of the study provide important aspects for STEM education. Even though the students participating in the study presumably had good grades in STEM, stereotypes still corrupted their self-concept. One of the reasons for this might lie in stereotypes that attribute girls' achievements to diligence instead of talent. The results also point out that direct support, particularly by parents, can have a negative impact on female students' self-concept. Activities that are meant to support pupils directly may actually backfire and transport stereotypes instead. This stresses the need for indirect support during socialization, e.g., by providing opportunities for children to have positive experiences or by giving them the chance to meet role models that are enthusiastic about their STEM professions. These kinds of measures have the potential to spur students' interest in STEM subjects-something that in the present study proved to be especially beneficial for women's positive self-concept when studying STEM topics.

Academic Goal Orientation and Cardiovascular Reactivity in a Performance Situation.

The present study investigated whether students' academic goal orientation (learning goals, performance goals, work avoidance) and their individual competence beliefs (their academic self-concept) can predict motivation-related cardiovascular activation patterns in a demanding performance situation. A sample of seventy-two undergraduate students rated their academic goal orientation as well as their competence beliefs and completed a mental arithmetic task. Heart rate (HR), blood pressure, pre-ejection period (PEP) as well as cardiac output (CO) and total peripheral resistance were monitored continuously during rest and task exposure. Students scoring higher on work avoidance showed smaller increases in HR and CO, and a smaller shortening of the PEP. A lower academic self-concept was associated with attenuated CO reactivity and a smaller shortening of the PEP. Learning and performance goals were unrelated to cardiovascular activity. The attenuated cardiac activity observed for work avoidance and competence beliefs was interpreted in terms of reduced task engagement resulting from lower success importance.

Statistics anxiety, state anxiety during an examination, and academic achievement.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of students identify statistics courses as the most anxiety-inducing courses in their curriculum. Many students feel impaired by feelings of state anxiety in the examination and therefore probably show lower achievements. AIMS: The study investigates how statistics anxiety, attitudes (e.g., interest, mathematical self-concept) and trait anxiety, as a general disposition to anxiety, influence experiences of anxiety as well as achievement in an examination. SAMPLE: Participants were 284 undergraduate psychology students, 225 females and 59 males. METHODS: Two weeks prior to the examination, participants completed a demographic questionnaire and measures of the STARS, the STAI, self-concept in mathematics, and interest in statistics. At the beginning of the statistics examination, students assessed their present state anxiety by the KUSTA scale. After 25 min, all examination participants gave another assessment of their anxiety at that moment. Students' examination scores were recorded. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test relationships between the variables in a multivariate context. RESULTS: Statistics anxiety was the only variable related to state anxiety in the examination. Via state anxiety experienced before and during the examination, statistics anxiety had a negative influence on achievement. However, statistics anxiety also had a direct positive influence on achievement. This result may be explained by students' motivational goals in the specific educational setting. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide insight into the relationship between students' attitudes, dispositions, experiences of anxiety in the examination, and academic achievement, and give recommendations to instructors on how to support students prior to and in the examination.