Research in younger adults dissociates cognitive from affective facets of social information processing, rather than promoting a monolithic view of social intelligence. An influential theory on adult development suggests differential effects of aging on cognitive and affective functions. However, this dissociation has not been directly tested in the social domain. Employing a newly developed naturalistic paradigm that disentangles facets of the social mind within an individual, we show multi-directionality of age-related differences. Specifically, components of the socio-cognitive route – Theory of Mind and metacognition – are impaired in older relative to younger adults. Nevertheless, these social capacities are still less affected by aging than factual reasoning and metacognition regarding non-social content. Importantly, the socio-affective route is well-functioning, with no decline in empathy and elevated compassion in the elderly. These findings contribute to an integrated theory of age-related change in social functioning and inform interventions tailored to specifically reinstate socio-cognitive skills in old age.

D.Litt. et Phil. / The aim of this investigation is to provide support to the growing evidence that people's paradigms directly influence the way differences are managed. Adherence to the old or Newtonian model has seemingly led to a restricted ability to deal with differences. Adherence to the new or quantum model, on the other hand, appears to facilitate not only the understanding of why there are so many differences and why they should be "celebrated" (topic of the American Counselling Association's 1995 Conference, Denver), but also encourages people to freely and nonjudgementally acknowledge, explore and integrate these differences. As a first step toward achieving this aim, a review of the literature regarding the existence of differences, the perceived causes of differences, and the perceived ways of managing differences in interpersonal relationship up to the present time will be provided. Secondly, the importance of paradigms in general, and of the natural scientific paradigms in particular, will be illustrated. Concepts of Newtonian and quantum physics that are considered relevant to the investigation will be described under this heading. Thirdly, the rationale of the exploratory, or qualitative study will be outlined. Fourthly, a chapter linking the natural scientific paradigms . to the discipline of psychology will be presented. Psychological analogies of Newtonian and quantum concepts will be put forward as well as examples of Newtonian and quantum psychology. Finally, implications of the described and discussed findings of Newtonian and quantum physics on the management of psychological differences will be explored, so that the 'celebration' and integration of differences can, indeed, be promoted.

A multitude of sensory inputs needs to be processed during sensorimotor integration. A crucial factor for detecting relevant information is its complexity, since information content can be conflicting at a perceptual level. This may be central to executive control processes, such as response inhibition. This EEG study aims to investigate the system neurophysiological mechanisms behind effects of perceptual conflict on response inhibition. We systematically modulated perceptual conflict by integrating a Global-local task with a Go/Nogo paradigm. The results show that conflicting perceptual information, in comparison to non-conflicting perceptual information, impairs response inhibition performance. This effect was evident regardless of whether the relevant information for response inhibition is displayed on the global, or local perceptual level. The neurophysiological data suggests that early perceptual/ attentional processing stages do not underlie these modulations. Rather, processes at the response selection level (P3), play a role in changed response inhibition performance. This conflict-related impairment of inhibitory processes is associated with activation differences in (inferior) parietal areas (BA7 and BA40) and not as commonly found in the medial prefrontal areas. This suggests that various functional neuroanatomical structures may mediate response inhibition and that the functional neuroanatomical structures involved depend on the complexity of sensory integration processes.

Longitudinal developmental fMRI studies just recently began to focus on within-subject reliability using the intraclass coefficient (ICC). It remains largely unclear which degree of reliability can be achieved in developmental studies and whether this depends on the type of task used. Therefore, we aimed to systematically investigate the reliability of three well-classified tasks: an emotional attention, a cognitive control, and an intertemporal choice paradigm. We hypothesized to find higher reliability in the cognitive task than in the emotional or reward-related task. 104 healthy mid-adolescents were scanned at age 14 and again at age 16 within M = 1.8 years using the same paradigms, scanner, and scanning protocols. Overall, we found both variability and stability (i.e. poor to excellent ICCs) depending largely on the region of interest (ROI) and task. Contrary to our hypothesis, whole brain reliability was fair for the cognitive control task but good for the emotional attention and intertemporal choice task. Subcortical ROIs (ventral striatum, amygdala) resulted in lower ICCs than visual ROIs. Current results add to the yet sparse overall ICC literature in both developing samples and adults. This study shows that analyses of stability, i.e. reliability, are helpful benchmarks for longitudinal studies and their implications for adolescent development.

Research in younger adults dissociates cognitive from affective facets of social information processing, rather than promoting a monolithic view of social intelligence. An influential theory on adult development suggests differential effects of aging on cognitive and affective functions. However, this dissociation has not been directly tested in the social domain. Employing a newly developed naturalistic paradigm that disentangles facets of the social mind within an individual, we show multi-directionality of age-related differences. Specifically, components of the socio-cognitive route – Theory of Mind and metacognition – are impaired in older relative to younger adults. Nevertheless, these social capacities are still less affected by aging than factual reasoning and metacognition regarding non-social content. Importantly, the socio-affective route is well-functioning, with no decline in empathy and elevated compassion in the elderly. These findings contribute to an integrated theory of age-related change in social functioning and inform interventions tailored to specifically reinstate socio-cognitive skills in old age.

It is far from conclusive what distinguishes the inattentive (ADD) and the combined (ADHD-C) subtype of ADHD on the neuronal level. Theoretical considerations suggest that especially interval timing processes may dissociate these subtypes from each other. Combining high-density EEG recordings with source localization analyses, we examine whether there are ADHD-subtype specific modulations of neurophysiological processes subserving interval timing in matched groups of ADD (n = 16), ADHD-C (n = 16) and controls (n = 16). Patients with ADD and ADHD-C show deficits in interval timing, which was correlated with the degree of inattention in ADD patients. Compared to healthy controls, patients with ADHD-C display a somewhat weaker, yet consistent response preparation process (contingent negative variation, CNV). In patients with ADD, the early CNV is interrupted, indicating an oscillatory disruption of the interval timing process. This is associated with activations in the supplemental motor areas and the middle frontal gyrus. Patients with ADD display adequate feedback learning mechanisms (feedback-related negativity, FRN), which is not the case in patients with ADHD-C. The results suggest that altered pacemaker-accumulation processes in medial frontal structures distinguish the ADD from the ADHD-C subtype. Particularly in patients with ADD phasic interruptions of preparatory neurophysiological processes are evident, making this a possible diagnostic feature.

The present study aimed to systematically examine whether laurinal, orange odor, and a specifically designed “perfume” influence sleep quality. During sleep, healthy participants (n = 139) were presented with odor or no odor through nose clips for fourteen consecutive nights (phase one). We collected physiological parameters together with subjective reports. Later on, longer lasting effects of this manipulation were examined for the following fourteen nights (phase two) without exposition to odors. Additionally, olfactory, cognitive and non-cognitive measures were conducted before phase one, between both phases and after phase two. One-way analyses of variance for repeated measures with nights and condition (1 vs 2) as the within-subject factor and odor condition (0, 1, 2 or 3) together with odor pleasantness rating as between-subject factor, was employed to analyse data. Overall, the present results demonstrated that the odor condition in comparison to control had no consistent effect on sleep in healthy participants which can be possibly explained by exposure to odors via nose clips. However, the analyses indicated that the individual pleasantness of odors enhanced the positive assessment of sleep quality. Altogether, the present results indicate that the subjective perception of an odor’s hedonic value appears to be crucial for sleep quality, not the odors themselves.

In a world with rapidly increasing population that competes for the earth’s limited resources, cooperation is crucial. While research showed that empathizing with another individual in need enhances prosociality, it remains unclear whether correctly inferring the other’s inner, mental states on a more cognitive level (i.e., mentalizing) elicits helping behavior as well. We applied a video-based laboratory task probing empathy and a performance measure of mentalizing in adult volunteers (N = 94) and assessed to which extent they were willing to help the narrators in the videos. We replicate findings that an empathy induction leads to more prosocial decisions. Crucially, we also found that correct mentalizing increases the willingness to help. This evidence helps clarify an inconsistent picture of the relation between mentalizing and prosociality.

Tenerife is experiencing challenges with its drinking water resources because of climate change and overtourism. The prior lone use of groundwater as drinking water source must now be complemented by desalinated saltwater. This has resulted in an increased use of drinking water on plastic bottles, which has led to large amounts of plastic waste on the island. Even with an implemented deposit system for plastic bottles in the capital, a high consumption of plastic bottles for drinking water remains. This study thereby aims to research tourists and locals’ habits and opinions of tap water consumption on Tenerife. The study aims to answer why tourists and locals do not drink the tap water on the island today and what their opinions are towards a reduced use of plastic bottles for drinking water consumption on Tenerife. The study also answers which actions could be taken to change tourists’ and locals’ consumption of drinking water in plastic bottles towards a primary consumption of tap water. A literature study was conducted to explore water consumption and plastic waste on Tenerife. A survey study was performed on 155 respondents of tourists and locals’ habits and opinions considering drinking water and plastic bottle waste. The results showed that most of the respondents avoid tap water with fear of food poisoning or insecurity of how it will affect their long-term health. Most of the respondents are positive towards a reduced use of plastic bottles for drinking water on Tenerife. Both tourists and locals answered that they would drink the tap water if they knew that it was safe and had a good taste. Actions that can be taken for changing the habits of using plastic bottles for drinking water are; informing the locals and tourists on the safety of the tap water and developing the water systems to improve the taste of the tap water. The study indicates the need for actions to increase the assurance in the quality and safety of tap water on Tenerife. This could improve the transition towards a more sustainable consumption of drinking water, help reduce the use of plastic bottles on the island and, is a step in the right direction towards the Sustainable development goals.

While the importance of social affect and cognition is indisputable throughout the adult lifespan, findings of how empathy and prosociality develop and interact across adulthood are mixed and real-life data are scarce. Research using ecological momentary assessment recently demonstrated that adults commonly experience empathy in daily life. Furthermore, experiencing empathy was linked to higher prosocial behavior and subjective well-being. However, to date, it is not clear whether there are adult age differences in daily empathy and daily prosociality and whether age moderates the relationship between empathy and prosociality across adulthood. Here we analyzed experience-sampling data collected from participants across the adult lifespan to study age effects on empathy, prosocial behavior, and well-being under real-life circumstances. Linear and quadratic age effects were found for the experience of empathy, with increased empathy across the three younger age groups (18 to 45 years) and a slight decrease in the oldest group (55 years and older). Neither prosocial behavior nor well-being showed significant age-related differences. We discuss these findings with respect to (partially discrepant) results derived from lab-based and traditional survey studies. We conclude that studies linking in-lab experiments with real-life experience-sampling may be a promising venue for future lifespan studies.