The Role of Statistics Anxiety in Learning Probability

The current study aimed at investigating the effect of statistics anxiety on learning probability, while taking into account mathematics anxiety and basic probabilistic reasoning, in order to provide insight into the direct and indirect relationships among affective and cognitive factors. Data were collected on a sample of undergraduate students attending an introductory statistics course. Through a step-wise regression model and a mediation model we showed that statistics anxiety mediates the relationship between probabilistic reasoning ability and achievement outcomes. Educational implications are discussed.