Research Interests

  1. Brain activity related to error processing and its association with individual differences in motivation, temperament and neurocognitive functioning
  2. Situational dynamics in motivation and task engagement
  3. Developmental relationships between motivation, achievement and subjective well-being

Recent publications

  1. Helenius, P., Laasonen, M., Hokkanen, L., Paetau, R., & Niemivirta, M. (2011). Impaired engagement of the ventral attentional pathway in ADHD. Neuropsychologia, 49, 1889-1896. [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  2. Heikkilä, A., Niemivirta, M., Nieminen, J., & Lonka, K. (2011). Interrelations among university students’ approaches to learning, regulation of learning, and cognitive and attributional strategies: A person-oriented approach. Higher Education, 61, 513-529 . [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  3. Tuominen-Soini, H., Salmela-Aro, K. & Niemivirta, M. (2011). Stability and change in achievement goal orientations: A person-centred approach. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 82-100. [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  4. Aunio, P. & Niemivirta, M. (2010). Predicting children’s mathematical performance in grade one by early numeracy. Learning and Individual Differences, 20(5), 427-435. [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  5. Helenius, P., Laasonen, M., Hokkanen, L., Paetau, R., & Niemivirta, M. (2010). Neural correlates of late positivities associated with infrequent visual events and response errors. NeuroImage, 53(2), 619-628. [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  6. Tapola, A. & Niemivirta, M. (2008). The role of achievement goal orientations in students' perceptions of and preferences for classroom environment. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 291–312. [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  7. Tuominen-Soini, H., Salmela-Aro, K. & Niemivirta, M. (2008). Achievement goal orientations and well-being: A person-centred analysis. Learning and Instruction, 18, 251-266. [download pdf | for personal use only] [DOI]
  8. Niemivirta, M. & Tapola, A. (2007). Self-efficacy, interest, and task performance: Within-task changes, mutual relationships, and predictive effects. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 21, 241-250. [download pdf (in English) | for personal use only] [DOI]
  9. Niemivirta, M. (2006). Assessing motivation and self-regulation in learning within a predictive design: Incorporating systematic elements of change. Educational Psychology Review, 18(3), 255-259
  10. Aunio, P., Niemivirta, M., Hautamäki, J., Van Luit, J., Shi, J., & Zhang, M. (2006). Young children's number sense in China and Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 50, 483-502. [download pdf (in English) | for personal use only] [DOI]

Other downloadable material

  1. Niemivirta, M., Helenius, P., Hokkanen, L., Laasonen, M., & Paetau, R. (2009). To go or not to go? Neural correlates of error detection and response monitoring. Poster presented at the Learning Mind and Brain -Conference.
  2. Niemivirta, M., Kujala, T., Kimppa, L. & Seppänen, M. (2009). Neural correlates of sensitivity to failure. Poster presented at the Learning Mind and Brain -Conference.
  3. Vuokko, E., Niemivirta., M., & Helenius, P. (2009). Different brain mechanisms for subitizing and counting revealed by MEG. Poster presented at the Learning Mind and Brain -Conference.
  4. Boekaerts, M. and Niemivirta, M. (2000). Self-regulation in learning: Finding a balance between learning- and ego-protective goals. In M. Boekaerts, P. R Pintrich, and M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of Self-Regulation (pp. 417-450). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. [for personal use only]
  5. Niemivirta, M. (2002). Individual differences and developmental trends in motivation: Integrating person-centered and variable-centered methods. In P. R. Pintrich and M. L. Maehr (Eds.). Advances in Motivation and Achievement (Vol. 12, pp. 241-275). Amsterdam: JAI Press. [for personal use only]
  6. Niemivirta, M., Rijavec, M., and Yamauchi, H. (2001). Goal orientations and action-control beliefs: A cross-cultural comparison among Croatian, Finnish, and Japanese students. In A. Efklides, J. Kuhl, and R. Sorrentino (Eds.), Trends and Prospects in Motivation Research (pp. 163-183). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. [for personal use only]
  7. Niemivirta, M. (2004). Stability and change in middle school students' school value: An application of latent growth curve modeling. In A. Efklides, G. Kiosseoglou, and Y. Theodorakis (Eds.), Qualitative and quantitative research in psychology (Vol 2, pp. 301-314). Athens: Ellinika Grammata. [for personal use only]
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