Developmental trajectories of school-beginners' ability self-concept, intrinsic value and performance in mathematics.

Background: Although research clearly demonstrates the importance of motivation in mathematics learning, relatively little is known about the developmental dynamics between different facets of mathematics motivation and performance, especially in the early years of schooling.

Aims: In a longitudinal setting, we examined (1) how children's ability self-concept and intrinsic value in mathematics change over time during their first 3 years in school, (2) how those changes relate to each other and (3) how they connect with mathematics performance.

Sample: The participants were 285 Finnish school-beginners (52.

Does mathematics anxiety moderate the effect of problem difficulty on cognitive effort?

A negative relationship between mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematics performance is well documented. One suggested explanation for this relationship is that MA interferes with the cognitive processes needed when solving mathematics problems. A demand for using more cognitive effort (e.

Developmental relations between mathematics anxiety, symbolic numerical magnitude processing and arithmetic skills from first to second grade.

We investigated the levels of and changes in mathematics anxiety (MA), symbolic numerical magnitude processing (SNMP) and arithmetic skills, and how those changes are linked to each other. Children's ( = 264) MA, SNMP and arithmetic skills were measured in Grade 1, and again in Grade 2, also including a mathematics performance test. All three constructs correlated significantly within each time point, and the rank-order stability over time was high, particularly in SNMP and arithmetic skills.

Temperamental Sensitivities Differentially Linked With Interest, Strain, and Effort Appraisals.

The present research examined the connections between temperament (), students' domain- and course-specific motivational appraisals (interest, strain, effort), and performance, in two studies. Study 1 explored the relationships between temperamental sensitivities, motivational appraisals, and task achievement among secondary students ( = 268) in the domain of mathematics, using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) for the analyses. Study 2 was conducted longitudinally among upper-secondary students ( = 155) during a course in four key school subjects.

Striving for Success but at What Cost? Subject-Specific Achievement Goal Orientation Profiles, Perceived Cost, and Academic Well-Being.

Most studies utilizing a person-oriented approach to investigating students' achievement goal orientation profiles have been domain-general or focused on a single domain (usually mathematics), thus excluding the possibility of identifying distinct subject-specific motivational profiles. In this study, we looked into this by examining upper secondary school students' subject-specific achievement goal orientation profiles simultaneously in mathematics and English. As distinct profiles might contribute to how students invest time and effort in studying, we also examined differences in perceived subject-specific cost (i.

Cortical activation patterns during subitizing and counting.

The exact amount of small number of items (1-4) can be detected fast and accurately (subitizing) while the enumeration of large number of items (over 4) is slower and error-prone (counting). Several counting-related cortical areas have been identified mainly in frontal and parietal regions, but cortical events associated with subitizing have remained unclear. Similarly, little is known about the temporal sequence of cortical activation during enumeration.

Impaired engagement of the ventral attentional pathway in ADHD.

In the cognitive theories of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) impaired behavioral adjustment has been linked to a deficit in learning to detect regularities or irregularities in the environment. In the neural level, the P3 component of event-related potential (ERP) is modulated by stimulus probability and has been suggested to index activation of the ventral attention network, which constitutes the reorienting system of the human brain. To explore the cortical basis of late positive ERP components and the engagement of the ventral attentional pathway in ADHD, we used ERP recordings complemented by spatiotemporally sensitive magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements.

Neural correlates of late positivities associated with infrequent visual events and response errors.

The P3 response has been one of the most extensively studied event-related potential (ERP) components. Still, the exact functional role and cortical basis of P3 has remained unsettled. To explore the cortical processes underlying the generation of late positivities, we recorded the activation evoked by frequent Go and infrequent NoGo stimuli and correct versus erroneous responses using combined magnetoencephalography (MEG) and ERP measurements during a visual Go/NoGo task.

The role of achievement goal orientations in students' perceptions of and preferences for classroom environment.

Background: Recent research on achievement motivation has begun to examine the effects of environmental factors affecting students' motivational beliefs and goal tendencies. However, when interpreting and applying the results, individual factors underlying students' different perceptions of their learning environment are often ignored. An implicit assumption seems to be that regardless of their dispositional differences (e.