| Summary: | Human behavior depends on the interplay between cognition and emotion. Negative emotions like anxiety affect performance, particularly in complex tasks, by limiting cognitive resources -- known as the anxiety--complexity effect. This study set out to replicate the anxiety--complexity effect in a web-based experiment. We investigated individual differences in math anxiety -- a negative emotional response specific to math -- and arithmetic performance (N = 382). The mental arithmetic task consisted of a two-digit addition and subtraction, with/ without carrying or borrowing, respectively. As expected and preregistered, higher math anxiety was related to poorer arithmetic performance, especially in complex tasks -- indicating the anxiety--complexity effect. Consequently, the negative math anxiety-performance link is especially pronounced for complex arithmetic, which requires calculations across place-values and thus working memory resources. This successful replication of the anxiety--complexity effect suggests that math-anxious individuals have particular difficulties in complex arithmetic.
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