Contempory study: Sebastian and Hernandez Gil (2012) Flashcards
Define digit span
longest sequence that can be held in the STM at 1 time
Aim
Investigate the development of the phonological loop by using verbal digit span as their measure.
And compare results to anglo-saxon kids and elderly people and people with dementia from and earlier study
Procedure: What was the type of experiment
field experiment in schools
Procedure: DV and IV
IV - year group of students
DV - mean verbal digit span
Procedure: how many participants were there, and where were they from
575 schools kids from pre schools, primary schools and secondary schools in Madrid.
Both private and public schools were used
Procedure: what was the age range of the kids
5-17
Procedure: how did researchers make sure no child had cognitive imparings
no child selected had repeated a year
Procedure
Sequences of random digits were read out to the child, length of digit increased by 1 each time they got it correct
Participants had to recall them in correct order
results
from the ages of 5 to 11, digit span increased steadily, then from 11 years to 17 years the increase slowed down and stabalised.
Results: mean digit span of 5 year olds vs 11 year olds
5 year olds = 3.76
11 year olds = 5.28
Results: mean digit span of 11 year olds vs 17 year olds
11 year olds = 5.28
17 year olds = 5.91
Results: difference between spanish school kids and anglo-saxon elders
the elders only had a higher digit span than the 5 year old group
rest of the age groups scored higher than elders
Conclusions
Digit span increases up to adolences in both the spanish and english study.
- Spanish children increases until 17 years, english increases until 15 years.
- avarage digit span was lower for spanish children than english children
Strength of generalisability
Sebastian and Hernandez Gil are testing a universal cognitive function everyone is likely to have.
Strength of generalisability: how is this a strength
we are likely to have a working memory that will work in broadly similar ways
Strength of generalisability: why is it a strength
because of this, it can be representative of the wider population
Weakness of generalisability
the study they compared findings with had a small sample size
Weakness of generalisability: evidence of small sample size
earlier study with people with dementia only had 9 participants
Weakness of generalisability: how do small sample size affect the findings
small sample sizes reduce power of statistical statistical tests and make Type I errors more likely to happen
Weakness of generalisability: what does this mean for the findings
makes the conclusions regarding phonological loop of old people questionable
Strength of reliability
The study had several standardised procedures
Strength of reliability: evidence of standardised procedures
researchers made sure each word was read for each participants 1 second at a time.
- these procedures made sure experience from each participants remained the same
Strength of reliability: what does this mean for the results
This means the findings are not affected by the differences in how to procedure was followed
Weakness of the validity
researchers relied on their observations on whether children presented learning impairments
