A microscale experiment is presented in which cyclohexene is dihydroxylated under three sets of conditions: epoxidation-hydrolysis, permanganate oxidation, and the Woodward dihydroxylation. The products of the reactions are determined by the use of thin-layer chromatography. Teams of students are presented with proposed mechanisms for each…

In this article a potentiometric method for reducing sugar quantification is described. Copper(II) ion reacts with the reducing sugar (glucose, fructose, and others), and the excess is quantified using a copper wire indicator electrode. In order to accelerate the kinetics of the reaction, working conditions such as pH and temperature must be…

An undergraduate biochemistry laboratory experiment that will teach the technique of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) while analyzing protein-induced DNA bending is described. The experiment uses the protein TATA binding protein (TBP), which is a general transcription factor that recognizes and binds specific DNA sequences known as…

For curriculum content-related reasons, inquiry activities can be difficult in classrooms unless the activities are approached in a manner that makes variations among student group findings understandable in the context of the study. Studies of individual animals and plant reactions to stimuli, such as insect exploratory behavior, allow the…

Using an easy-to-make cylindrical resonator, students can measure the speed of sound in a gas, u, with sufficiently high precision (by locating standing-wave Lissajous patterns on an oscilloscope) to observe real gas properties at one atmosphere and 300 K. For CO[subscript 2] and SF[subscript 6], u is found to be 268.83 and 135.25 m s[superscript…

Repetition priming and between-trial control adjustments after successful and unsuccessful response inhibition were studied in the stop-signal paradigm. In 5 experiments, the authors demonstrated that response latencies increased after successful inhibition compared with trials that followed no-signal trials. However, this effect was found only…

In two experiments, participants studied word pairs and later discriminated old (intact) word pairs from foils, including recombined word pairs and pairs including one or two previously unstudied words. Rather than making old/new memory judgments, they chose one of five responses: (1) Old-Old (original), (2) Old-Old (rearranged), (3) Old-New, (4)…

To what extent do speaker-external communicative pressures versus speaker-internal cognitive pressures affect utterance form? Four experiments measured speakers' references to privately known (i.e., privileged) objects when naming mutually known (i.e., common ground) objects. Although speaker-external communicative pressures demanded that speakers…

Multitasking was studied in the stop-change paradigm, in which the response for a primary GO1 task had to be stopped and replaced by a response for a secondary GO2 task on some trials. In 2 experiments, the delay between the stop signal and the change signal was manipulated to determine which task goals (GO1, GO2, or STOP) were involved in…

This laboratory project is one component of a semester-long advanced biochemistry laboratory course that uses several complementary techniques to study tRNA[superscript Phe] conformational changes induced by ligand binding. In this article we describe a set of experiments in which students assay metal-catalyzed hydrolysis of tRNA[superscript Phe]…

The capacity of visual working memory was examined when complex objects from different categories were remembered. Previous studies have not examined how visual similarity affects object memory, though it has long been known that similar-sounding phonological information interferes with rehearsal in auditory working memory. Here, experiments…

Signal detection psychophysical experiments were conducted to investigate the visual path of children with autism. Computer generated images with Gaussian noise were used. Simple signals, still and in motion were embedded in the background noise. The computer monitor was linearized to properly display the contrast changes. To our knowledge, this…

How does the knowledge of experts affect their behaviour in situations that require unusual methods of dealing? One possibility, loosely originating in research on creativity and skill acquisition, is that an increase in expertise can lead to inflexibility of thought due to automation of procedures. Yet another possibility, based on expertise…

The present study investigated the mechanisms underlying error detection in the error signaling response. The authors tested between a response monitoring account and a conflict monitoring account. By implementing each account within the neural network model of N. Yeung, M. M. Botvinick, and J. D. Cohen (2004), they demonstrated that both accounts…

What are the origins of abstract concepts such as "seven," and what role does language play in their development? These experiments probed the natural number words and concepts of 3-year-old children who can recite number words to ten but who can comprehend only one or two. Children correctly judged that a set labeled eight retains this label if…