Seeing Is Believing: Task-Exposure Specificity and the Development of Mathematics Self-Efficacy Evaluations

We examine the relevance of task exposure specificity in the development of self-efficacy evaluations among 15-year-old students in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We use data from the 2012 edition of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to assess if students' self-efficacy evaluations with respect to a set of mathematics tasks are associated with how frequently they encountered those same tasks or tasks requiring them to apply similar processes or procedures. We find evidence of task exposure specificity in the development of self-efficacy evaluations toward both applied and pure mathematics problems. The relationship between task exposure and self-efficacy evaluations is not moderated by students' socioeconomic status (SES) or anxiety toward mathematics. Exposure to easy items appears to be more strongly associated with the development of self-efficacy among high achieving students and exposure to pure mathematics problems is more strongly associated with the development of self-efficacy among girls. Educational Impact and Implications Statement Bandura's social-cognitive theory indicates that expectations of personal efficacy are based on performance accomplishments, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. Our results indicate that exposure-induced familiarity is also crucial in shaping 15-year-old students' mathematics self-efficacy and that exposure has an effect on self-efficacy independently from its role in providing a setting for performance accomplishments. Students who are presented a particular mathematics task are more likely to report feeling confident about solving such a task above and beyond an individual level of general self-efficacy. Exposure is particularly strongly associated with feelings of confidence among high ability students for tasks in which exposure is more easily translated into performance accomplishments. Among low ability students familiarity is particularly strongly associated with feelings of confidence for applied mathematics tasks that have a complex structure and framing. Math curricula could be designed to better exploit exposure induced familiarity to develop students' self-efficacy and, through it, promote their sustained willingness and effort to work to improve their achievement in mathematics.