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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fear of math can cause a temporary brain glitch that may explain why an otherwise glib person stumbles and stammers over the simple matter of adding two numbers, new research shows.

In experiments with university students, researchers found that those with ``math anxiety'' suffered a fleeting lapse in working memory when asked to do some mental arithmetic. These memory problems failed to crop up in tests that did not involve numbers, meaning that the phenomenon is ``very specific to math,'' study author Dr. Mark H. Ashcraft of Cleveland State University in Ohio said.

``It's a learned, almost phobic, reaction to math,'' he explained in an interview with Reuters Health. He noted that research shows that people need not be anxious types in general to harbor a fear of math. The mere specter of doing sums has been shown to send a person's blood pressure and heart rate skyward.

In this study, Ashcraft and colleague Elizabeth P. Kirk found that math-phobic students were often stumped when it came to remembering basic math rules like ``carrying over'' a number when adding, or ``borrowing'' from a number when subtracting.

They report the findings in the June issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

The researchers used questionnaires to gauge the students' levels of math anxiety, and then gave them various tests that involve working memory. The investigators found that those who reported high math anxiety showed lapses only on tests that involved working with numbers.

An explanation for the memory problem, Ashcraft said, is that when math anxiety takes hold, a rush of thoughts goes through a person's head. This leaves little room for the task at hand.

``You're draining away the energy you need for solving the problem by worrying about it,'' he explained.

And this makes for a ``vicious cycle'' for students, Ashcraft noted. Once they develop math anxiety, the fear gets in the way of learning, which leads to waning self-confidence in their ability to ever conquer arithmetic.

Part of the problem, according to Ashcraft, may rest in how math is taught--at least in the US. Students may be taught math rules, but they rarely know why a certain approach to a math problem works. Giving students a ``deeper understanding'' of math may help fight phobias, he said.

Another study published in the same issue of the journal echoes that idea. In a study of university students educated in Canada or China, researchers found that the Chinese students outperformed Canadian-educated students in complex math tasks that involved ``procedural knowledge''--that is, knowing how to tackle a math problem, rather than drawing on memory (such as knowing 6 + 6 - 12).

Part of this difference appeared to be due to calculator use in elementary and secondary schools--Canadians tended to use them, while Chinese students did not.

Calculators were not the sole root of the national differences, point out Drs. Jamie Campbell and Qilin Xue of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. For example, Canadian students of Chinese origin outperformed white Canadians in complex math, which suggests cultural factors also matter, they note.

However, taking the calculator short-cut may get in the way of developing the problem-solving skills key to math performance, according to the authors.

While getting kids to develop such skills in school is important, according to Ashcraft that may be easier said than done.

In one study of math anxiety levels among college students, he said, fear of math was most rampant among elementary education majors.

SOURCE: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2001;130.