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Edexcel AS Psychology - Cognitive Psychology > Contemporary Study - Sebastián & Hernández-Gil (2012) > Flashcards

Contemporary Study - Sebastián & Hernández-Gil (2012) Flashcards

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1
Q

What was the study about?

A

About how digit span develops fom childhood to adolescence. It also looked at older people.

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2
Q

What part of memory does the study test?

A

The phonological loop of Baddeley’s working memory model.

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3
Q

What did the researchers want to study?

A

They wanted to study the developmental pattern of working memory over time, including changes from ageing or neurodegenerative diseases (dementia).

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4
Q

What was their aim?

A

To analyse the developmental pattern of the phonological loop in children aged 5-17 years old.

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5
Q

What did the study involve looking at?

A

The age at which the digit span stopped increasing in adulthood/ adolescence.

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6
Q

Whta is another thing they wanted to look at?

A

The decline of digit span in older people, including those with 2 types of dementia.

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7
Q

What were the 2 types of dementia?

A

1 - Alzheimer’s

2 - fronto-temporal dementia

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8
Q

What did they use to look at the decline of digit span of people with dementia?

A

They used findings from their previous study in 2010.

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9
Q

What was another aim of the study?

A

To see if Anglo-Saxon data was replicated, or whether digit span would be higher for Spanish speakers.

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10
Q

What did the Anglo-Saxon data find?

A

It found that 15 years is the age at which the digit span stops developing further.

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11
Q

What do we mean by ‘Anglo-Saxon’ data?

A

Data using the English language.

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12
Q

What does digit span refer to?

A

Memory span and capacity of short-term memory, with regard to the memory of digits, without rehearsal.

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13
Q

How can digit span be tested?

A

By reading a sequence of - for e.g. - 3 numbers to someone. If they get it right, the next sequence they are tested on will have 4 digits in it, and so on, until they get a sequence wrong. That is then their digit span.

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14
Q

The development of short-term memory over time has been studied.
It appears that children have?

A

A different capacity than adults.

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15
Q

In comparison to children, older people might have?

A

A lower capacity.

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16
Q

What has studying those with fronto-temporal dementia or Alzheimer’s shown?

A

It has shown that short-term memory is impaired.

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17
Q

In particular, the study looks at…

A

… the capacity of storing auditory information in working memory.

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18
Q

What models did Sebastián & Hernández-Gil mention?

A

First, they mentioned Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1968) model of memory as separating STM and LTM, and then they mentioned Baddeley & Hitch’s (1974) working memory model which splits STM up into temporary stores.

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19
Q

What is the significance of the MSM and the WMM in this study?

A

They are the background for the study.

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20
Q

What are the 2 parts of the phonological loop?

A

1 - the phonological store

2 - the subvocal rehearsal

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21
Q

What does the phonological store do?

A

It retains verbal information

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22
Q

What does subvocal rehearsal do?

A

It uses strategies like chunking to help extend the temporary memory store.

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23
Q

The phonological store is used to…

A

… store items.

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24
Q

The subvocal rehearsal is used to…

A

… remember the correct order of items.

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25
Q

Why was a digit span method ideal to study these 2 parts of working memory (the phonological store & the subvocal rehearsal)?

A

Because a digit span requires a sequence of numbers to be remembered, as well as their order.

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26
Q

At which age does short-term memory seem to improve?

A

From the age of 6 to adulthood (according to Diamond).

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27
Q

What is evidence of very young children having a phonological loop?

A

3-4 year olds use it.

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28
Q

When does subvocal rehearsal start?

A

At about 7-8 years.

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29
Q

What did Hitch find about the phonological loop?

A

It always decays quickly.

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30
Q

What part of memory increases digit span with age?

A

The subvocal rehearsal.

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31
Q

What could possibly help in the developmental of the subvocal rehearsal in young children?

A

The developmental of the central executive.

32
Q

How many parts were there to the study?

A

2

33
Q

What kind of data did the first part of the study use?

A

Primary data.

34
Q

What controls for education and cognitive differences were in place with regard to participants?

[Part (1) of the study]

A
  • all born in Spain
  • none had repeated a school year
  • none had difficulties in reading, writing or hearing
35
Q

Details of participants?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

570 5—17 year old Spanish volunteers from various schools in Madrid.

36
Q

What kind of data did the second part of the study use?

A

Secondary data.

37
Q

What is primary data?

A

Data gathered by the researchers in an actual study at the time and for the purpose of testing one or more hypotheses.

38
Q

What is secondary data?

A

Data gathered for a previous study, possibly for a different purpose, and already existing when used in a new study.

39
Q

What data was used from the researchers’ previous study in 2010?

[Part (2) of the study]

A

Data was gathered about digit span of elderly people without impairment, those with Alzheimer’s and those with fronto-temporal dementia.

40
Q

Details of participants?

[Part (2) of the study]

A
  • 25 healthy older people as a control group
  • 25 people with Alzheimer’s disease
  • 9 with fronto-temporal dementia
41
Q

What was the hypothesis of the main part of the study (the first part)?

A

That there is a digit span which increases with age, from 5—17 years old.

42
Q

What was the IV?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

The age of the participant.

43
Q

What was the DV?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

The digit span.

44
Q

How was the digit span measured?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

By reading aloud sequences of digits, one per second.

45
Q

What happened each time a participant got the sequence right?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

Another digit was added to increase the span and the participant tried again.

46
Q

What was the digit span measure?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

The number of digits in the sequence where they recalled at least 2 of the 3 sequences correctly.

47
Q

Starting point?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

3 sequences of 3 digits.

48
Q

What did instructions require of participants?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

That they listen carefully and recall the digits in the same order that they were presented in.

49
Q

5 age groups of participants?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

1) 5 years
2) 6—8 years
3) 9—11 years
4) 12—14 years
5) 15—17 years

50
Q

What did results show?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

That digit span increased with age.

51
Q

Results of preschool children aged 5 years?

[Part (1) of the study]

A
  • very low digit span

- significant difference from other age groups

52
Q

Results of 6—8 year olds?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

Children had a very similar digit span.

53
Q

When did the increase in one digit (4 digits to 5) occur?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

At 9 years, and it rose to 11 years old.

54
Q

Results of older children aged 12—14 years?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

Similar digit span to one another, but differed from the age groups ‘above’ them.

55
Q

Results of 15—17 year olds?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

Similar digit span to 12—14 year olds.

56
Q

Which data did the researchers compare their data to?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

Data from the WISC-IV.

57
Q

What is the WISC-IV?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV.

58
Q

What did data from the WISC-IV show?

[Part (1) of the study]

A

That digit span increases with age, but the digit span was higher each time than the findings of their study.

59
Q

What did the 2nd part of the study compare the results of the 1st study with?

A

With another study from 2010.

60
Q

What did the comparison of the performance of the elderly participants with the youngest in the 1st part of the study show?

A

A higher digit span than both the 5 year olds and 6 year olds.

61
Q

General conclusion in part (2)?

A

Performance of elderly participants didn’t differ from the other year groups.

62
Q

What was found when the digit span of the youngest participants was compared with the participants with dementia?

A

It was found that those with Alzheimer’s dementia had a higher digit span than 5 year olds, but not significantly different from the other year groups, whereas those with fronto-temporal dementia had a similar digit span to the youngest groups.

63
Q

Main conclusion of the study?

A

Digit span increases with age, from 5—17 years old.

64
Q

What was the conclusion in regard to Anglo-Saxon data (which found that digit span increased to 15 years old and then reached an adult level)?

A

Sebastián & Hernández-Gil’s results contrasted with the Anglo-Saxon data.

65
Q

What is the adult digit span?

A

7 digits

66
Q

What is the adult digit span in line with?

A

It is in line with the multi store model of memory, and conclusions in that model about memory span in short-term memory without rehearsal.

67
Q

What explanation did Sebastián & Hernández-Gil propose about why the Spanish study figures were a digit below the Anglo-Saxon data?

A

They highlighted the idea of differences in word length (how long it takes to say the word) between Spanish and English as the reason.

They mentioned Baddeley et al.’s study that showed that memory span is affected by lists using long words compared to lists using short words.

68
Q

What evidence is there from this study that there is a decline in digit span with age?

A

The span of the healthy older people was similar to that of a 7 year old.

69
Q

Reliability gives a study strength. How are the results of this study reliable?

A

Researchers compared their data with WISC-IV data in the Spanish population, and with other studies. The findings show very similar patterns in development, with digit span increasing up to around 17 years of age.

70
Q

A strength of the study is the use of careful controls.

What controls were in place?

A
  • digit span task is a standard task
  • same procedure of the 2010 study was used
  • each digit presented 1 per second
  • 3 trials
  • controls with regard to participants
70
Q

A strength of the study is the use of careful controls.

What controls were in place?

A
  • digit span task is a standard task
  • same procedure of the 2010 study was used
  • each digit presented 1 per second
  • 3 trials
  • controls with regard to participants
71
Q

Sebastián & Hernández-Gil didn’t just analyse data for the actual age using school years, but also for age group, so that they have individual digit span scores for each year and age group. How is this a strength?

A

Because it meant that they had more information to draw conclusions from.

From e.g. they couldn’t only show the average digit span for 6—8 year olds, but also that 6, 7 and 8 year olds differed, which is a useful finding in itself.

72
Q

Why might the study have a lack of validity?

A

Because the task is artificial, as we do not generally recall lists of digits.

73
Q

In what ways is the study valid?

A
  • It looks at the phonological loop, so perhaps recall of sequences of digits is a valid test for that purpose.
  • Setting is reasonably valid as it is in their schools and in break time.
74
Q

There is a variable which is not controlled, and this is a weakness of the study. What is it?

A

It is that the digits are subvocalised by Spanish speakers.

75
Q

The study shows that digit span increases until the age of 17. How does this lead to a weakness?

A

There is contrastic data suggested by WAIS-III that digit span might increase until 19 years of age.

76
Q

The study shows that digit span decreases in older people. What weakness does this lead to?

A

The weakness is that the study doesn’t show at what age the decrease might start.

Edexcel AS Psychology - Cognitive Psychology (19 decks)

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