A new variant of the psychologists’ stock-in-trade ‘Stroop test’ has been discovered – applicable only to trombonists. Background: The ‘Stroop Effect’ (a cognitive interference where a delay in the reaction time of a task occurs due to a mismatch in stimuli) is named after John Ridley Stroop who wrote the first academic paper (in English*) about […]
Tag: reaction
How to prepare a mousetrap fission demonstration
The Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations and Snow Removal Team is seen, in this video, preparing a classic mousetrap-as-analog demonstration of how nuclear fission proceeds. Their written explanation includes these comments: We’ve got the set-up time down to 15 minutes, and like all nuclear devices, you only get one shot at this one. The mouse trap […]
A clever new claim that we are less intelligent
Yet another claim, from smart people who want to instruct us about intelligence, that we (if not they) have probably become less intelligent than many of those who preceded us: “Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time,” Michael A. Woodley, […]
The Heck Reaction vs. the Hell Reaction
Again this year, there is no winner in our essay contest to address the question: “Which Is Better, the Heck Reaction or the Hell Reaction?” The contest entrants and the more numerous potential entrants were uninspired by the two info sources we suggested: “Recent Developments and New Perspectives in the Heck Reaction,” Walter Cabri and […]
Taking advantage of promiscuous reactions
One of the highlights of the American Chemical Society’s meeting in Denver is this presentation by Milton R. Smith III [pictured here, at right] of Michigan State University; “Taking advantage of promiscuous reactions.” The photo below shows part of the sign board outside the ballroom in which this research was revealed to an eager public: