This multi-technique experiment with a forensic theme was developed for a nonscience-major chemistry course. The students are provided with solid samples and informed that the samples are either cocaine or a combination of drugs designed to mimic the stimulant and anesthetic qualities of cocaine such as caffeine and lidocaine. The students carry…

This study examines how and when small networks of self-interested agents generate a group tie or affiliation at the network level. A group affiliation is formed when actors (a) perceive themselves as members of a group and (b) share resources with each other despite an underlying competitive structure. We apply a concept of structural cohesion to…

Contrasting results have been reported regarding the phonetic acquisition of bilinguals. A lack of discrimination has been observed for certain native contrasts in 8-month-old Catalan-Spanish bilingual infants (Bosch & Sebastian-Galles, 2003a), though not in French-English bilingual infants (Burns, Yoshida, Hill & Werker, 2007; Sundara, Polka &…

An indispensable principle of rational thought is that positive evidence should increase belief. In this paper, we demonstrate that people routinely violate this principle when predicting an outcome from a weak cause. In Experiment 1 participants given weak positive evidence judged outcomes of public policy initiatives to be less likely than…

Mass spectrometry (MS) is a powerful analytical technique that is now widely used in the chemical, physical, engineering, and life sciences, with rapidly growing applications in many areas including clinical, forensic, pharmaceutical, and environmental fields. The increase in use of MS in both academic and industrial settings for research and…

Rule finding is an important aspect of human reasoning and flexibility. Previous studies associated rule finding "failure" with past experience with the test stimuli and stable personality traits. We additionally show that rule finding performance is severely impaired by a mindset associated with applying an instructed rule. The mindset was…

Two experiments investigated the way acoustic markers of prominence influence the grouping of speech sequences by adults and 7-month-old infants. In the first experiment, adults were familiarized with and asked to memorize sequences of adjacent syllables that alternated in either pitch or duration. During the test phase, participants heard pairs…

This study investigated the "knew it all along" explanation of the hypercorrection effect. The hypercorrection effect refers to the finding that when people are given corrective feedback, errors that are committed with high confidence are easier to correct than low-confidence errors. Experiment 1 showed that people were more likely to…

Action research in China during late 1970s and 1980s was influenced by positivist scientific research, believing the purpose of doing action research is to explore the general law of education. It was carried out through educational experimentations emphasizing the control of the experimental conditions. Starting from 1990s, action research in…

A computational chemistry experiment is described in which students can use advanced ab initio quantum mechanical methods to test the ability of the London equation to account quantitatively for the attractive (dispersion) interactions between rare gas atoms. Using readily available electronic structure applications, students can calculate the…

The development and implementation of a research-based organic chemistry laboratory experiment is presented. The experiment was designed to simulate a scientific research environment, involve students in critical thinking, and develop the student's ability to analyze and present research-based data. In this experiment, a laboratory class…

When illuminating four "mystery" vials of nanoparticle solution with a 405-nm light emitting diode (LED), four distinct colors related to the peak wavelength of fluorescent emission can be observed. This phenomenon perplexes high school physics students and leads to the subsequent exploratory question, "Why are the four vials emitting a different…

Recent developments in mobile and wireless communication technologies have played a vital role in building the u-learning environment that now combines both real-world and digital learning resources. However, learners still require assistance to control real objects and manage the abundance of available materials; otherwise, their mental workload…

This paper describes curriculum modules developed for first-year general chemistry laboratory courses that use scientific literature and creative experiment design to build information literacy in a student-centered learning environment. Two curriculum units are discussed: Exploring Scientific Literature and Design Your Own General Chemistry…

The Republic of Turkey has developed democratic support for equity in education for groups who have various learning needs (Levent, 2011, p. 89-91). In connection with Turkey's central policy of education, current educational applications have addressed these diverse needs to a certain extent. Sak (2011) drew our attention to the insufficiency of…