developmental psychology in memory

Question 1

what does developmental psychology investigate

Answer 1

• what happens to us as we age
• concerned with normal and abnormal behaviour
• studies when and how children learn language
• investigates when and why children fail to learn language
• memory research includes dyslexia and Alzheimer’s in young and old ppts

Question 2

what is dyslexia

Answer 2

• reading disorder, difficulty recognising and decoding printed words
• affects reading fluency and accuracy, but comprehension is normal
• affects 3-6% of children (up to 10%)
• more prevalent in boys than girls
• difficulty with phonology, critical for learning to read
• first sign: difficulty learning letter sounds and names
• leads to spelling and reading problems

Question 3

how does dyslexia affect verbal short-term memory

Answer 3

• poor verbal short-term memory
• phonological similarity effect: difficulty remembering similar sounding words
• word length effect: difficulty remembering long words vs short words
• suggests they have impaired short-term memory for speech sounds

Question 4

what did mcDougall et al. (1994) find in their study on reading ability

Answer 4

• divided 90 children into 3 reading ability groups: poor, moderate, and good readers
• poor readers had significantly lower memory spans for words and slower reading rate
• good readers can articulate words quickly, holding more words in short-term memory
• poor readers sound out words slowly, leading to fewer words in short-term memory
• basic inefficiency in phonological processing and storage may explain dyslexia

Question 5

what did alloway et al. (2009) find about dyslexia and working memory

Answer 5

• children with dyslexia struggle to process and remember speech sounds due to poor working memory
• difficulty holding speech sounds long enough in working memory to form words
• lack the capacity to store syllables long enough for fluent word formation
• studied 46 children (6-11 years) with reading disability, finding short-term working memory deficits
• deficits could be the cause of reading problems

Question 6

what did smith-spark et al. (2010) find about dyslexia and working memory

Answer 6

• adults with dyslexia had unimpaired spatial working memory but impaired verbal working memory
• compared to a control group of non-dyslexic participants
• suggests a deficit with the phonological loop in dyslexic participants

Question 7

what does research suggest about dyslexia and memory

Answer 7

• children and adults with dyslexia have cognitive impairment leading to shorter memory span
• difficulty processing and storing verbal information in short-term memory
• hard to isolate the role of verbal memory in causing dyslexia
• people with dyslexia often have sensory impairments in auditory and visual systems
• dyslexia is comorbid with other learning difficulties (e.g., ADHD, specific learning impairments)
• interaction with other difficulties complicates isolating phonological issues as the cause of reading impairment

Question 8

what is Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 8

• progressive, degenerative neurological disorder
• affects around 1 in 20 people, risk increases with age
• most common form of dementia
• typically occurs after 65, but can start as early as 40
• characterised by memory loss, concentration loss, confusion, and mood changes
• symptoms progressively worsen

Question 9

how does Alzheimer’s disease affect cognitive systems

Answer 9

• Alzheimer’s selectively impairs certain cognitive systems, not global cognition
• initially deteriorates memory for new events and information
• older information is preserved
• affects working memory, impairing central executive functioning
• makes complex tasks harder to coordinate
• visuospatial processing becomes impaired

Question 10

how does Alzheimer’s disease affect memory recall

Answer 10

• inability to recall autobiographical information from episodic memory
• affects both short-term and long-term memory recall
• memory loss linked to depletion of brain matter, especially in hippocampus and temporal cortex
• greater brain damage leads to more significant impairment
• impairment typically increases as the disease progresses

Question 11

how does Alzheimer’s disease affect executive functioning and attention

Answer 11

• loss of executive functioning leads to poor coordination and attention difficulty
• Baddeley et al. (2001) conducted attentional tests on Alzheimer’s patients and controls
• one test involved finding ‘Z’ among easy and difficult distractors, and a dual task procedure
• Alzheimer’s patients performed *worse on the difficult distractor task
• more impaired on the dual task, suggesting dual attentional tasks are specifically impaired by Alzheimer’s