Malachite and verdigris, two copper-based pigments, are synthesized in this experiment intended for use in a general chemistry laboratory. The preparation of egg tempera paint from malachite is also described. All procedures can be done with a magnetic stir plate, standard glassware present in any first-year laboratory, and household chemicals.…

Historiography is a growing area of research within the discipline of linguistics, but so far the subfield of clinical linguistics has received virtually no systematic attention. This article attempts to rectify this by tracing the development of the discipline from its pre-scientific days up to the present time. As part of this, I include the…

I explain a simple definition of causality in widespread use, and indicate how it links to the Kramers-Kronig relations. The specification of causality in terms of temporal differential equations then shows us the way to write down dynamical models so that their causal nature "in the sense used here" should be obvious to all. To extend existing…

Multitasking impedes learning and performance in the short-term and may affect long-term memory and retention. The implications of these findings make it critical that educators and parents impress upon students the need to focus and reduce extraneous stimuli while studying or reading. Course-based quizzes and tests can be used for more than…

In recent studies, researchers have discovered a larger neural activation for stimuli that are more extreme exemplars of their stimulus class, compared with stimuli that are more prototypical. This has been shown for faces as well as for familiar and novel shape classes. We used a visual search task to look for a behavioral correlate of these…

Visual spatial attention can be exogenously captured by a salient stimulus or can be endogenously allocated by voluntary effort. Whether these two attention modes serve distinctive functions is debated, but for processing of single targets the literature suggests superiority of exogenous attention (it is faster acting and serves more functions).…

How do the characteristics of sounds influence the allocation of visual-spatial attention? Natural sounds typically change in frequency. Here we demonstrate that the direction of frequency change guides visual-spatial attention more strongly than the average or ending frequency, and provide evidence suggesting that this cross-modal effect may be…

Recognition judgments to the non-antecedents of a repeated-noun anaphor are slower and less accurate after than before the processing of the anaphor. Disagreement exists as to whether this pattern of performance reflects a bias shift carried out by a memory process associated with the recognition of a word that has previously occurred in the…

If numerical reasoning items are administered under time limits, will two dimensions be required to account for the responses, a numerical ability dimension and a speed dimension? A total of 182 college students answered 74 numerical reasoning items. Every item was taken with and without time limits by half the students. Three psychometric models…

Background: Studies of engagement in meaningful activity often focus on a short period during the afternoon. The question arises whether this produces different results from studies covering the whole day. Methods: Data collected for 18 individuals using a 20-s momentary time-sample from 08:00 to 19:00 over a number of days for each person were…

Ample evidence suggests that global perception may involve low spatial frequency (LSF) processing and that local perception may involve high spatial frequency (HSF) processing (Shulman, Sullivan, Gish, & Sakoda, 1986; Shulman & Wilson, 1987; Robertson, 1996). It is debated whether SF selection is a low-level mechanism associating global…

Participants' reaction time (RT) data in a prime-probe flanker task (e.g., ABA-CAC) were analyzed in terms of the characteristics of RT distribution to examine possible mechanisms that produce negative priming. When the prime and probe were presented in the same context and the proportion of repetition-target trials (TRP) was 0.33, negative…

This study investigates whether a rhythm can orient attention to specific moments enhancing people's reaction times (RT). We used a modified version of the temporal orienting paradigm in which an auditory isochronous rhythm was presented prior to an auditory single target. The rhythm could have a fast pace (450 ms Inter-Onset-Interval or IOI) or a…

Anyone interested in the future or current state of undergraduate education would gain something from picking up a slim-volumed and rather dull-looking book entitled "Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate" by American academic, Ernest Boyer. In a matter of only 81 pages, Boyer delivers a critically damning assessment…

This study aimed to ascertain the characteristics of spatial perspective-taking ability--assumed to be a form of imaginary body movement in three-dimensional space--in the elderly. A new task was devised to evaluate the development of this function: 20 children, 20 university students, and 20 elderly people (each group comprising 10 men and 10…