Developmental psychology Flashcards
What is developmental psychology in memory?
Investigates effects of ageing, investigated normal and abnormal behaviour as we age
What is Dyslexia in terms of memory?
Extended Writing
Dyslexia- Problem recognising/decoding words at expected level for age. Difficulty reading accurately and fluently but good comprehension/understanding are symptoms. Some signs are difficulty learning letter sounds/names and problem associating word name with how it’s said, which results in reading and spelling problems. Dyslexic children have poor verbal STM due to phenological similarity effect (Difficulty remembering acoustically similar words) and word-length effect (difficulty remembering long words in lists). Mcdougal et al (1974) studied 90 children, used 3 groups, poor, moderate, and good readers. Poor readers had a significantly slower reading rate, which resulted in less words being held in STM resulting in lower memory span for words. Good readers could quickly articulate words and store more in STM. Alloway (2009) States that dyslexic children struggle to remember words/speech sounds due to difficulty binding and storing speech sounds to form words, which is due to low working memory capacity. She studied 46 11 year-olds with reading disabilities and found that Short-Term WM deficits can cause reading problems. Smith-spark et al 2010 investigated adults with dyslexia, stated that they had impaired verbal working memory but unimpaired spatial WM, this was proven when he compared adults to non-dyslexic group, deduced that dyslexic adults have defected phonological loop. Research seems to strongly conclude idea that dyslexia is caused by underlying cognitive impairment which may cause shorter memory span and difficulty storing/processing verbal info, however it’s difficult to establish role of verbal memory as dyslexic people normally have other visual/auditory sensory impairments. Dyslexia is comorbid (Together) with other learning difficulties/impairments such as ADHD, which means it’s difficult to accredit phonological issues as reason for reading impairment
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Extended Writing
Progressive, degenerative neurological disorder associated with ageing affecting 1 in 20 people. Most common form of dementia occurring after 65 years, can occur as early as 40, associated with memory loss, concentration loss, confusing and mood swings that worsen over time.
Alzheimer’s disease selectively impairs certain cognitive systems, initially deteriorates memory for new events and info, whereas older info is preserved.
Affects working memory, central executive, making complex task co-ordination more difficult and visuo-spatial processing more difficult.
A major characteristics is inability to recall autobiographical info from episodic memory, affecting STM and LTM info. Extent of memory loss is associated with hippocampus and temporal lobe brain matter depletion, greater brain damage means more significant impairment.
Baddeley et al (2001) conducted series of attentional tests on individuals with Alzheimer’s and control participants, one involving looker for letter Z among easy and difficult distractor letters which looked similar to Z. Did dual task too. Found that patients with Alzheimer’s performed worse on difficult distractor task and even worse on dual task. Dual attention tasks specifically impaired by disease
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia- Problem recognising/decoding words at expected level for age. Difficulty reading accurately and fluently but good comprehension/understanding are symptoms, which may be sign of phonological difficulty (Phonological loop crucial for reading) . Some signs are difficulty learning letter sounds/names and problem associating word name with how it’s said, which results in reading and spelling problems. Dyslexic children have poor verbal STM and spelling/reading problems due to phenological similarity effect (Difficulty remembering acoustically similar words) and word-length effect (difficulty remembering long words in lists).
What may children with dyslexia suffer from?
Children with dyslexia have poor verbal short-term memory, evidence from phenological similarity effect (difficulty remembering acoustically similar words) and word-length effect (difficulty remembering sequences of long words as opposed to short ones) they may have impaired STM to do with speech.
What is McDougall et al (1994)?
Mcdougal et al (1974) studied 90 children, used 3 groups, poor, moderate, and good readers. Poor readers had a significantly slower reading rate, which resulted in less words being held in STM resulting in lower memory span for words. Good readers could quickly articulate words and store more in STM
What is Alloway (2009)?
Alloway (2009) suggest dyslexic children have difficulty in processing and remembering speech sounds due to poor working memory. They cannot hold all speech sounds for long enough in working memory to bind them and form word. They don’t have WM capacity to store them and bind them. Investigated 46 6-11 year old children with reading disability, she found that short-term WM deficits can be cause of reading problems
What is Smith-Spark et al (2010)?
Smith-Spark et al (2010) found adults with dyslexia had unimpaired spatial working memory but impaired verbal WM, compared to non-dyslexic group and results indicate deficit in phonological loop in dyslexic ppts.
What can research conclude about dyslexia?
Research seems to strongly conclude that dyslexic children and adults have underlying cognitive impairment leading to shorter memory span and difficulty storing and processing verbal info in STM. Difficult to establish role of verbal memory in dyslexia as people with dyslexia display auditory and visual sensory impairments. Dyslexia is comorbid (Is together) with other learning difficulties such as ADHD and other learning impairments. Interaction between dyslexia and other related difficulties makes it difficult to isolate phonological issues as reason for reading impairment
What is Alzheimer’s?
Progressive, degenerative neurological disorder associated with ageing affecting 1 in 20 people. Most common form of dementia occurring after 65 years, can occur as early as 40, associated with memory loss, concentration loss, confusing and mood swings that worsen over time.
What does Alzheimer’s do?
Alzheimer’s disease selectively impairs certain cognitive systems, initially deteriorates memory for new events and info, whereas older info is preserved.
Affects working memory, central executive, making complex task co-ordination more difficult and visuo-spatial processing more difficult. A major characteristics is inability to recall autobiographical info from episodic memory, affecting STM and LTM info. Extent of memory loss is associated with hippocampus and temporal lobe brain matter depletion, greater brain damage means more significant impairment.
What is Baddeley et al (2001)?
Baddeley et al (2001) conducted series of attentional tests on individuals with Alzheimer’s and control participants, one involving looker for letter Z among easy and difficult distractor letters which looked similar to Z. Did dual task too. Found that patients with Alzheimer’s performed worse on difficult distractor task and even worse on dual task. Dual attention tasks specifically impaired by disease.
