In an integrative review, we concluded that implicit affective cues--rudimentary stimuli associated with the onset of arousing positive or negative emotional states and/or with appraisals that the environment is benign or threatening--automatically moderate the scope of attention (Friedman & Forster, 2010). In their comment, Harmon-Jones, Gable,…

Five experiments investigated the importance of shape and object manipulation when 12-month-olds were given the task of individuating objects representing exemplars of kinds in an event-mapping design. In Experiments 1 and 2, results of the study from Xu, Carey, and Quint (2004, Experiment 4) were partially replicated, showing that infants were…

Teaching science with an inquiry-based approach can seem like an impossible challenge. However, it is achievable. One way to begin is by converting a cookbook-style lab (from the internet or a textbook) into an inquiry-based science experience. To convert a cookbook lab into an inquiry-based science experience, the authors propose the following…

We describe a variant of the classical Young's double slit experiment that can be easily realized in any classroom, in order to evidence the wave nature of light. The proposed apparatus and its simplified theory are described and pictures of fringes, readily obtained using only cheap and off-the-shelf optical components, are reproduced. The…

In teaching the materials science aspects of physics, mechanical behaviour is important due to its relevance to many practical applications. This article presents a method for experimentally examining the toughness of chocolate, including a design for a simple test rig, and a number of experiments that can be performed in the classroom. Typical…

A simple in-class experiment was designed to expose students to an aspect of materials science dealing with defects. Students break a series of paper strips to gauge the breaking strength. A precut transverse "crack" weakens the paper strip by a surprising amount. Adding a precut "crack stopper" greatly reduces the effect of the original "crack".…

An undergraduate laboratory experiment is presented that allows a thermodynamic characterization of micelle formation of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in aqueous solutions. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) and the degree of micelle ionization (alpha) are obtained at different temperatures by conductimetry. The molar standard free energy…

Qualitative organic analysis of an unknown compound is an integral part of the university chemistry laboratory curriculum. This type of training is essential as students learn to approach a problem systematically and to interpret the results logically. However, considerable quantities of waste are generated by using conventional methods of…

A simple and cost-effective laboratory experiment is described that extracts protoporphyrin IX from brown eggshells. The porphyrin is characterized by UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. A chemiluminescence reaction (peroxyoxalate ester fragmentation) is performed that emits light in the UV region. When the porphyrin extract is added as a fluor…

A Faraday cage is an interesting physical phenomenon where an electromagnetic wave can be excluded from a volume of space by enclosure with an electrically conducting material. The practical application of this in the classroom is to block the signal to a mobile phone by enclosing it in a metal can. The background of the physics behind this is…

A very low-cost, easy-to-make stopwatch is presented to support various experiments in mechanics. The high-resolution stopwatch is based on two photodetectors connected directly to the microphone input of a sound card. Dedicated free open-source software has been developed and made available to download. The efficiency is demonstrated by a free…

The commercial resonance demonstration apparatus shown in Fig. 1 exhibits curious behavior. It consists of three pairs of slender spring-steel rods attached to a horizontal bar. When one of the rods is pulled aside and released, the rod of corresponding length is excited into visible motion, but the other rods remain apparently stationary. This…

This study investigated the nature of the retrieval architecture of Semitic morphemic entities in word production in Hebrew, a language with a non-concatenated morphology. By taking advantage of the potential for dissociation of form and meaning in Hebrew, we explored the relative contribution of word-form and semantics to morphological…

Going "green" is a slogan that is very contemporary, both with industry and in the political arena. Choosing more energy-efficient devices is one way homeowners can "go green." A simple method is to change home lighting from hot incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). But do they really save energy? How do their illuminations…

A recent note in this journal presented a demonstration of standing waves along a cord consisting of two parts having different material densities, showing different sized wavelengths in each part. A generalization of that experiment to a continuously varying linear mass density is to vibrate a strip of material with gradually varying width (mass…