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Physiological responses offer a promising avenue for investigating emotional states associated with task performance. Yet, studies examining the physiological correlates of mathematical performance remain limited and conflicting. Here we investigated the relationship between numeracy and three measures of physiological arousal (salivary cortisol, skin conductance, and heart rate variability) among 130 university students. We aimed to determine whether these associations varied across different levels of self-reported math anxiety and neuroticism. Results reveal that enhanced numeracy was linked to an increase in cortisol overall and to either increase or decrease in skin conductance in students with low neuroticism depending on their field of study. Furthermore, distinct profiles of math anxiety, neuroticism, and physiological response emerged, displaying different numeracy performance. No modulation by math anxiety and gender was found. These findings emphasise the importance of incorporating neuroticism and students’ field of study for a comprehensive interpretation of physiological arousal in relation to numeracy.
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Lunardon et al. (2024) studied this question.
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