What Do We See When We See Total Darkness?

Seeing total darkness is a peculiar perceptual state: in it, the subject is visually aware of something while seeming to fail to be aware of anything. Recent treatments of the topic (Sorensen 2008 , Soteriou 2000 ) leave this particular puzzle unsolved. Here, I attempt a solution. Following Dretske, I begin by suggesting that the perceptual report ‘S sees (total) darkness’ is ambiguous between two distinct kinds of perceptual states: epistemic and non‐epistemic. This will lead to an examination of the metaphysics of what is supposed to be seen. I show, on the one hand, the difficulty of reducing the perception of total darkness to the perception of a particular instantiation of a property, and on the other, that it has important similarities with the perception of (non‐particular) ‘stuff’. I propose, finally, that the solution to the puzzle might involve postulating a novel ontological status for total darkness: that of a ‘concrete universal’. Potential implications of interest for particularism and for naïve realism are suggested.     

Factors Associated with Interest in Gene-Panel Testing and Risk Communication Preferences in Women from <Emphasis Type="Italic">BRCA1/2</Emphasis> Negative Families

Scientific advances have allowed the development of multiplex gene-panels to assess many genes simultaneously in women who have tested negative for BRCA1/2. We examined correlates of interest in testing for genes that confer modest and moderate breast cancer risk and risk communication preferences for women from BRCA negative families. Female first-degree relatives of breast cancer patients who tested negative for BRCA1/2 mutations (N = 149) completed a survey assessing multiplex genetic testing interest and risk communication preferences. Interest in testing was high (70 %) and even higher if results could guide risk-reducing behavior changes such as taking medications (79 %). Participants preferred to receive genomic risk communications from a variety of sources including: primary care physicians (83 %), genetic counselors (78 %), printed materials (71 %) and the web (60 %). Factors that were independently associated with testing interest were: perceived lifetime risk of developing cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 1.67: 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.06–2.65) and high cancer worry (OR = 3.12: CI 1.28–7.60). Findings suggest that women from BRCA1/2 negative families are a unique population and may be primed for behavior change. Findings also provide guidance for clinicians who can help develop genomic risk communications, promote informed decision making and customize behavioral interventions.     

Family Impact and Parenting Styles in Families of Children with ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) begins in childhood and is characterized by attention deficits, hyperactivity, or impulsiveness that is inconsistent with a child’s developmental level. The effects of ADHD are not limited to the child alone but can affect their familial context, particularly parenting styles. Using data from 68 parents of 6–11-year-old ADHD-diagnosed children, we attempted to identify the predictive variables of two parenting styles: criticism-rejection and permissiveness-indulgence. We analyzed two complex predictive models using structural equation modeling. We hypothesized that family impact variables would mediate the relation between the child’s behavior and parenting. The data showed that the child’s ADHD was only indirectly related to parenting styles, whereas child’s behavior problems had a direct relationship. The results stressed the central role of the child’s behavior on family social life, parents’ marital relationship, and parents’ feelings about their children. These variables mediated the relationship between the children’s disorders and parenting styles. On the other hand, perceived social support had an inverse relationship with this negative family impact, and it even had relevant indirect effects on criticism and permissiveness.     

Differential Effects of Mother’s and Father’s Parenting on Prosocial and Antisocial Behavior: Child Sex Moderating

The current study examined the differential effects of maternal and paternal parenting on prosocial and antisocial behavior during middle childhood, and the moderating role of child sex. Parents of 96 boys and 107 girls (mean age?=?92.42?months, SD?=?3.52) completed different questionnaires to assess parenting and child behavior. All participants were Caucasian from south of Spain. Multiple hierarchical regressions (enter method) were performed to determine significant predictors of prosocial and antisocial behavior. The results showed that maternal and paternal hostility predicted an increase of externalizing problems in boys and girls (p?<?.001 in both sex groups). As well, Warmth/Induction of both parents predicted an increase in adaptive skills in boys and girls (p?<?.001 in both sex groups). On the other hand, differential effects of fathers’ and mothers’ parenting were found: both for boys and girls, maternal inconsistency positively predicted externalizing problems and negatively adaptive skills (p?<?.001 in both sex groups) and paternal overprotection positively predicted externalizing problems and negatively adaptive skills (p?<?.05 in both sex groups). Finally, maternal coercion negatively predicted adaptive skills in boys and girls (p?<?.05 in both sex groups); however, it increased externalizing problems only in girls (p?<?.05), whereas maternal permissiveness only increased these problems in boys (p?<?.01 in both cases). The discussion highlighted the importance of considering both parents’ and children’s sex to further knowledge of parenting styles affecting children’s behaviors.     

Depression and sleep quality in older adults: a meta-analysis

The literature emphasizes depression and poor sleep quality as problems that affect many elderly individuals. However, these problems have been related in few studies and there is no meta-analysis performed so far on this relationship. The present research reviewed the studies performed on the subjective sleep quality in order to understand how it relates to depression in older adults. The review was conducted in January 2016 and comprised publications between 2005 and 2015. Based on the electronic databases Web of Science and EBSCO, we used the keywords ‘sleep quality’, ‘depression’, and ‘older’ to identify the empirical studies performed. After assessing the collected studies, we selected those that presented the elderly as participants, resulting in nine papers (N = 3069). A random-effects method was used to evaluate the relationship between depression and sleep. We found that an older person’s lack of good sleep quality is significantly related with depression. The main limitation of this study was the difficulty in collecting a greater number of studies. Future research should consider the importance of additional variables (e.g. moderators) in order to understand and investigate viable interventions for prevention and health promotion in the elderly.     

Measurement Invariance of Personal Well-Being Index (PWI-8) Across 26 Countries

This report examines the measurement invariance of the Personal Well-being Index with 8 items (PWI-8). University students (N = 5731) from 26 countries completed the measure either through paper and pencil or electronic mode. We examined uni-dimensional structure of PWI and performed a Multi-group CFA to assess the measurement invariance across the 26 countries, using conventional approach and the alignment procedure. The findings provide evidence of configural and partial metric invariance, as well as partial scalar invariance across samples. The findings suggest that PWI-8 can be used to examine correlates of life satisfaction across all included countries, however it is impossible to compare raw scores across countries.     

Creative ways to well-being: Reappraisal inventiveness in the context of anger-evoking situations

Neuroscientific studies in the field of creativity mainly focused on tasks drawing on basic verbal divergent thinking demands. This study took a step further by investigating brain mechanisms in response to other types of creative behavior, involving more “real-life” creativity demands in the context of emotion regulation and well-being. Specifically, functional patterns of EEG alpha activity were investigated while participants were required to generate as many and as different ways as possible to reappraise presented anger-eliciting situations in a manner that reduces their anger. Cognitive reappraisal involves some of the same cognitive processes as in conventional verbal creativity tasks, inasmuch as it requires an individual to inhibit or disengage from an emotional event, to shift attention between different perspectives, and to flexibly adopt new solutions. To examine whether alpha oscillations during cognitive reappraisal are different from those during conventional creative ideation, the EEG was also assessed during performance of the Alternative Uses task, requiring individuals to generate as many and as original uses of an object as possible. While cognitive reappraisal was associated with a similar pattern of alpha power as observed in conventional verbal creative ideation, the former yielded significantly stronger alpha power increases at prefrontal sites, along with lower alpha increases at more posterior cortical sites, indicating higher cognitive control and less spontaneous imaginative thought processes in the generation of effective strategies to regulate an ongoing negative emotional state.     

Increased locus coeruleus tonic activity causes disengagement from a patch-foraging task

High levels of locus coeruleus (LC) tonic activity are associated with distraction and poor performance within a task. Adaptive gain theory (AGT; Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005) suggests that this may reflect an adaptive function of the LC, encouraging search for more remunerative opportunities in times of low utility. Here, we examine whether stimulating LC tonic activity using designer receptors (DREADDs) promotes searching for better opportunities in a patch-foraging task as the value of a patch diminishes. The task required rats to decide repeatedly whether to exploit an immediate but depleting reward within a patch or to incur the cost of a time delay to travel to a new, fuller patch. Similar to behavior associated with high LC tonic activity in other tasks, we found that stimulating LC tonic activity impaired task performance, resulting in reduced task participation and increased response times and omission rates. However, this was accompanied by a more specific, predicted effect: a significant tendency to leave patches earlier, which was best explained by an increase in decision noise rather than a systematic bias to leave earlier (i.e., at higher values). This effect is consistent with the hypothesis that high LC tonic activity favors disengagement from current behavior, and the pursuit of alternatives, by augmenting processing noise. These results provide direct causal evidence for the relationship between LC tonic activity and flexible task switching proposed by AGT.