Mathematics achievement correlates more strongly with learners' knowledge, skills and cognitive abilities than with their personality traits, goals or emotions¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r3 · q3 · i3 large · n=30 meta-analyses, 66 correlations from 13,853 effect sizes (~4.66 million participants)
Currency · newest study 2025 · checked against its sources 2026-10-16 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person

Across 66 learner characteristics, the strongest correlates of mathematics achievement are knowledge and skills (verbal achievement, prior knowledge, reading, mathematics vocabulary) and cognitive abilities (intelligence, language, creativity, executive functions); personality, goals and emotions correlate less and more variably. These are correlations compiled across meta-analyses: they describe how strongly the characteristic goes with mathematics achievement, not what causes it.

Subclaims¶

q3 i3 Across 66 learner characteristics, the strongest correlates of mathematics achievement are knowledge and skills (verbal achievement, prior knowledge, reading, mathematics vocabulary) and cognitive abilities (intelligence, language, creativity, executive functions); personality, goals and emotions correlate less and more variably. → Breit et al. 2025

Evidence¶

Breit et al. 2025¶

Breit, M., Schneider, M., & Preckel, F. (2025). Mathematics achievement and learner characteristics: A systematic review of meta-analyses. Learning and Individual Differences, 118, 102621. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2024.102621

q3 · systematic review of meta-analyses · i3 · large effect, r from .67 to −.28 across 66 variables · n=30 meta-analyses, 66 correlations from 13,853 effect sizes (~4.66 million participants) · review · r3

The review compiles zero-order correlations from published meta-analyses (each with at least ten effect sizes, the largest one kept where several covered a variable), found by a systematic PsycINFO search in July 2024. It pools nothing further and controls for nothing: many of these characteristics correlate with one another, so a correlation here says how strongly the characteristic goes with mathematics achievement, not that it causes it. Of the 66 correlations, 54 reached at least a small size (|r| ≥ .10). All eight knowledge-and-skills variables were large or very large (|r| ≥ .30): verbal achievement r = .67, prior mathematical knowledge .63, reading .52, mathematics vocabulary .49, number line estimation .44, self-regulation .42, metacognition .37, computational thinking .39. The 40 aptitude variables were mostly large: a PASS intelligence composite .62, general intelligence .49, creativity .47, fluid intelligence .41, language .42, executive-function composites .34–.40, working memory .35, spatial ability .25, and emotional intelligence the weakest at .16. The 18 personality variables ranged from −.28 to .43 (median .04): mathematics self-concept .43 and enjoyment .31 at the top, conscientiousness .22, need for cognition .25, mastery goals .17, and boredom (−.28), mathematics anxiety (−.28) and test anxiety (−.23) negative.

Discussion¶

Zero-order and overlapping. The authors stress that the variables are intercorrelated (intelligence overlaps with creativity, language with vocabulary and phonological processing), so the rank order describes association, not unique contribution. Malleable correlates. They note that many of the large correlates, such as self-regulation, reading, mathematics self-concept and achievement emotions, are generally considered responsive to instruction, which makes them candidate targets for support; this review itself tests no intervention. Compared with achievement in general, self-concept, creativity, prior knowledge and self-regulation correlated more strongly with mathematics than in Hattie's (2023) cross-domain synthesis.

Learner Variables¶

• Achievement Emotions — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Achievement Goal Orientation — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
• Personality Traits — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• Prior mathematical knowledge correlates very strongly with later mathematics achievement (r = .63), largely reflecting stable differences between learners
• Verbal achievement, reading and language abilities correlate strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .42 to .67)
• General and fluid intelligence correlate strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .41 to .62), and the fluid-intelligence correlation is larger in older samples
• Executive functions and working memory correlate moderately to strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .28 to .40), from preschool through elementary school
• Number line estimation and numerical magnitude comparison correlate with mathematics achievement (r = .24 to .44), with number line estimation more strongly related in older children
• Spatial ability correlates moderately with mathematics achievement (r = .25), less strongly than verbal ability
• Mathematics self-concept correlates strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .43), while verbal self-concept barely does (r = .12)
• Self-regulation and metacognition correlate strongly with mathematics achievement (r = .42 and .37)
• Enjoyment correlates positively (r = .31), and boredom, mathematics anxiety and test anxiety negatively (r = −.23 to −.28), with mathematics achievement
• Of the Big Five personality traits, only conscientiousness (r = .22) and openness (r = .13) correlate appreciably with mathematics achievement
• Need for cognition correlates moderately with mathematics achievement (r = .25)
• Mastery goals correlate positively (r = .17) and performance-avoidance goals negatively (r = −.17) with mathematics achievement, while performance-approach goals barely do
• Creativity correlates strongly with mathematics achievement in school (r = .47), more so in elementary than in high school
• Emotional intelligence correlates only weakly with mathematics achievement (r = .16), less than with achievement in the humanities
• State-level percentage of uncertified teachers correlates negatively with NAEP state assessment performance (r from –.40 to –.63) — related
• Emotion regulation variables predict academic outcomes (GPA and academic honors) beyond Big Five personality traits and gender in high school students — related
• Fluid reasoning, not trait self-control, predicts low-stakes standardized mathematics and physics test scores — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Math anxiety's negative impact on math achievement is limited to more difficult math, emerging around late elementary school content — related
• Teacher-observed emotion regulation correlates with academic outcomes more strongly than performance-tested ERA does — related
• General cognitive ability has moderate positive relations with work performance, with meta-analytic validity coefficients in the 0.4 to 0.6 range across many job types — related
• Kindergarten predictors correlate robustly with grade 1 math outcomes, weakest for computation — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Social competence is positively and externalizing problems negatively prospectively related to academic achievement — related
• Changes in mathematics self-concept and interest are independent of prior achievement and do not predict later achievement — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Off-line self-report instruments show low concurrent validity with on-line measures and do not predict learning outcomes very well — related
• Domain-identical pretests are the most powerful single-level covariate type for student achievement, outperforming cross-domain pretests, fluid intelligence, and sociodemographic characteristics — related
• Achievement, effort-related variables, (meta-)cognitive learning strategies, and goal orientations are the most frequently reported correlates of motivation regulation — related
• Achievement goals show small consistent correlations with academic achievement, positive for approach goals and negative for avoidance goals — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Spatial ability correlates with educational performance across many STEM disciplines and sub-disciplines — related
• Prior knowledge, but not interest or estimated prior knowledge, predicts use of learner control options — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Domain-general cognitive skills correlate positively with vibe-coding performance, CS achievement, and writing skills — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Trait self-control correlates with grades but not with standardized test scores at the bivariate level — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Learner characteristics — prior knowledge, self-regulatory skills, cognitive styles, and attitudes towards learning — moderate hypermedia learning effectiveness — related
• Numerical metacognition, but not emotion metacognition, predicts children's standardized mathematics achievement — related
• Math anxiety relates more strongly to Mathematical Reasoning than to Numerical Operations in second and third graders — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Math anxiety correlates negatively with math achievement, grades, enjoyment, motivation, and amount of math taken — related
• Student characteristics beyond prior knowledge bear on inquiry learning: inhibitory control predicts inquiry outcomes, and in one study a direct-instruction advantage over inquiry held only for students with low domain self-concept — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Conscientiousness correlates more strongly with grades than with standardized test scores, across both language and STEM domains — related
• Conscientiousness shows the strongest links to SRL and robustly predicts academic performance even after accounting for cognitive ability — related
• Teacher-assigned grades show moderate-to-strong correlations with external performance measures and predict long-term outcomes (review-reported) — related
• Stable Dispositions such as conscientiousness predict academic success partly through effort, with some independence from cognitive ability — reports the opposite
• Metacognitive awareness is weakly correlated with intelligence and independently predicts performance (review-reported) — related
• Math anxiety correlates negatively with math performance at a pooled r = −.30 across 169 independent samples — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Test anxiety correlates negatively with math achievement at a pooled r = −.23, weaker than math anxiety's correlation — related
• Conscientiousness is robustly associated with academic performance across primary, secondary, and tertiary education, with openness the next strongest predictor — related
• Spatial ability scores are positively associated with mathematics performance across children and adults, as the review reports — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The inhibitory control–mathematical ability correlation does not differ across domains of mathematical ability — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Students experience a rich diversity of academic emotions, with anxiety reported most often (15-25% of reports) but positive emotions described about as often as negative emotions — related
• Math achievement at the end of second grade is predicted by fluid intelligence, verbal working memory, and prior math achievement — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Intelligence and working memory predicted seventh-grade mathematics before prior achievement was controlled, but their direct effects were masked by sixth-grade competence — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Test boredom correlates negatively with math grades but not with the math test score in Study 1 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim