Valikko Sulje

About me

I’m psychology researcher interested in language comprehension and visual cognition. I’m PI of the Perception, Cognition, and Language Research Group in the Division of Psychology at the University of Oulu.

I’m especially interested in how people can understand each other, with a relatively good precision, although they do not always say what they mean (e.g., when they use figurative language); and what the reasons are why they sometimes fail in the comprehension process. I primarily examine these questions using eye tracking, and combining eye tracking with other laboratory measures. I’m currently PI of the Academy of Finland postdoctoral research project Irony comprehension across the lifespan.

Recent articles

Olkoniemi, H., Halonen, S., Pexman, P. M., & Häikiö T. (in press). Children’s processing of written irony: An eye movement study. Cognition. |Preprint]

Tuominen, J., Kaittila, A., Halme, V., Hietamäki, J., Hakovirta, M., & Olkoniemi, H. (in press). Changes in frequency and form of domestic violence in calls to violence helpline during COVID-19 in Finland. Psychology of Violence. |Preprint]

Olkoniemi, H., Hurme, M., & Railo, H. (2023). Neurologically healthy humans’ ability to make saccades toward unseen targets. Neuroscience, 513, 111–125. https://doi.org/10.101/j.neuroscience.2023.01.014 |Preprint|

Olkoniemi, H., Bertram, R, & Kaakinen, J. K. (2022). Knowledge is a river and education is like a stairway: An eye movement study on how L2 speakers process metaphors and similes. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 25, 307–320. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728921000869 |Preprint|