Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41709098›Full record

ArticleThe British journal of educational psychology2026

The relation of spatial skills, spatial memory span, and two anxiety types with statistics anxiety in European and North American University students.

Rose-Marie Gibeau, Sébastien Béland, Erin A Maloney, Michael Cantinotti, Lucile Chanquoy, Daniel Lalande, Jessica Simon, Charlotte Paulis, Gaën Plancher, Marie-Aude Boislard and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The British journal of educational psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Do You See the Difference Between Perfection and Excellence?Psychology research and behavior management · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Rose-Marie GibeauÉcole de Psychologie, Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3649-4626
Sébastien BélandDépartement d'Administration et Fondements de l'Éducation, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Erin A MaloneyÉcole de Psychologie, Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Michael CantinottiDépartement de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada.
Lucile ChanquoyDépartement de Psychologie, Université Côte d'Azur, Nice, France.
Daniel LalandeDépartement des Sciences de la Santé, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada.
Jessica SimonUnité de Recherche de Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives (PsyNCog), Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Charlotte PaulisUnité de Recherche de Psychologie et Neuroscience Cognitives (PsyNCog), Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Gaën PlancherUniversité de Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
Marie-Aude BoislardDépartement de Sexologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Denis CousineauÉcole de Psychologie, Université d'Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Funding

Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du CanadaSocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

BACKGROUND &

aimsThe present two studies investigated the role of spatial cognition in statistics anxiety. The hypothesis that spatial representations and/or visuospatial skills are related to the acquisition of statistics abilities which, when lacking or unused, generate statistics anxiety is examined. MATERIALS &

methodsTo this end, a total of 680 students in Social Sciences from 14 different universities located in one of three countries enrolled in a statistics class at the time of the study were recruited. Study 1 examined a mediation model where visuospatial and verbal working memory (WM) spans as well as spatial anxiety are predictors of statistics anxiety with mathematics anxiety as the mediator.

resultsThe results show a partial mediation and strong associations between all three types of anxiety (i.e., spatial anxiety, mathematics anxiety and statistics anxiety). The subscale statistics interpretation anxiety was best predicted by visuospatial WM span. Study 2 examined a path regression model where performance on a spatial and a verbal task along with spatial anxiety are predictors of statistics anxiety. DISCUSSION: The results indicate that the mental manipulation subscale of spatial skills is a strong predictor of mental manipulation anxiety which, in turn, predicts interpretation anxiety in statistics.

conclusionBoth studies support the role of spatial cognition in statistics understanding. These results have implications for the teaching and learning of statistics.

Indexed as

AnxietyMemory, Short-TermSpace PerceptionSpatial MemoryStatistics as TopicStudentsAdolescentAdultEuropeFemaleHumansMaleMathematicsNorth AmericaUniversitiesYoung Adultmathematics anxietyspatial anxietyspatial skillsstatistics anxietyworking memory

Identifiers

PMID41709098
PMCPMC13440994

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.