Children begin to develop an attitude toward mathematics as soon as they are exposed to mathematics; these attitudes can have an affect on students' learning in mathematics. For example, research has shown that some students are prohibited from learning mathematics to their full potential due to a negative attitude toward mathematics (Reyes, 1980). Ma and Kishor (1997) conducted a meta-analysis of 113 studies that investigated the relationship between attitudes toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics and found this relationship to be both reliable and positive,
but not strong. McLeod (1992) suggests that attitude toward mathematics and achievement in mathematics are not dependent on each other, but that they "interact with each other in complex and unpredictable ways" (p. 582). While overall measures of attitude toward mathematics have only small positive relationships with achievement, a measure of
a student's confidence in mathematics has a relatively strong positive correlation with achievement in mathematics (e.g. Dowling, 1978). Research has shown that, when students are more sure of themselves, teachers seem to pay more
attention to them (Reyes, 1980).