Paying attention in math class could lead to smarter decision-making, according to a recent study.

The University of Oregon study found a link between a person's understanding of numbers and how well they make decisions under certain circumstances. It also found that visualizing a number becomes difficult when it is expressed in more than one way -- such as a percentage or a decimal.

For example, the study showed that educated psychiatrists were more likely to discharge a patient if there was a 10 percent risk of it being dangerous, rather than if it were presented as one out of 10.

Ellen Peters, who was involved in the study and specializes in psychology and decision research at the University of Oregon, said because many decisions require understanding numbers in different forms, it's important for people to be able recognize similar figures, otherwise misinterpretation could cause a bad decision.

"Medical decisions more and more tend to involve numbers, and people who are better at math use those numbers more," Peters said, adding that financial decisions could also be affected by people's ability to understand numbers.

David Baker, Penn State professor of education and sociology who is currently working with Peters on a study of poorly educated people in Peru, said Peters' work is "very interesting."

"Education's been shown to have a massive influence on how people behave," Baker said.

"Ellen's work is a bridge."

Baker said education has a large effect on peoples' lives. He has connected more schooling to lower birth rate and longer life expectancy and sees a correlation between his work and Peters' work because numeracy, the ability to understand numbers, also falls under the category of education.

Similarly, Palanivel Manoharan, Penn State's coordinator for first-year math courses, said he thinks math has a big effect on peoples' lives.

"Math develops critical thinking, which helps you make better decisions," he said. "Anyone getting a degree should have basic critical-thinking skills."

Travis Fatzinger (sophomore-environmental systems engineering) said the study has some worth for those thinking about something financially.

"I know friends who don't think like that and are more in debt than they think they are," Fatzinger said.

However, other students failed to see the connection.

"I don't think it has any correlation," Sean Dolan (senior-history and anthropology), who claims to be horrible at math, said. "I think I make decent decisions."