sebastian and hernandez-gil Flashcards
what were the aims
to study the developmental pattern of working memory over time, including changes due to dementia or ageing
to see if Anglo-Saxon data was going to be different from Spanish data
what part of working memory were they studying
the phonological loop
what types of dementia were in the study
Alzheimer’s and fronto-temporal dementia
what was the sample
570 students aged 5-17 from various schools over Madrid
no participants had repeated a school year or had any hearing, reading or writing difficulties
what type of data was used
primary data
what were the ages in each group
5
6-8
9-11
12-14
15-17
what was the procedure in part 1
participants were put into 5 groups
they were tested individually at break time
participants were asked to recall 3 sequences of 3 digits and each time they remembered the digits, another one was added
what was the IV
age of participants
what was the DV
digit span
what was the procedure in part 2
25 healthy older people were compared against 25 people with alzhiemers and 9 people with fronto-temporal dementia
digit span task was the same in part 1
what were the results of part 1
digit span increased with age
the 5yr olds had a low digit span and showed a significant difference from the others
what was the mean digit span from each group
5yrs= 3.76
6-8yrs= 4.34
9-11yrs= 5.13
12-14yrs= 5.46
15-17yrs= 5.83
what was the standard deviation score for each group
5yrs= 0.52
6-8yrs= 0.58
9-11yrs= 0.81
12-14yrs= 0.85
15-17yrs= 0.84
what were the mean digit spans from part 2
alzhiemers dementia- 4.20
fronto-temporal dementia- 4.22
healthy older people- 4.44
compare the results of part 1 and 2
performance of elderly participants was compared with the 5yr olds and they showed a higher digit span than 5yr olds and 6yr olds
the performance of elderly participants didn’t differ from other year groups
digit span does decrease with age irrespective of if you have dementia or not
what is subvocal rehearsal
rehearsing things mentally - not out load
evaluate the internal validity
good control over extraneous variables
participants were all tested individually which stopped them from becoming distracted so they were more likely to measure the effects of age on digit span
evaluate the objective
memory operationalised the verbal digit span sequences of random digits meaning that measurement isn’t prone to bias and it can be measured objectively
evaluate the generalisability
it has good generalisability as the sample was so varied which increases external validity
how many groups were participants put in
5
what was the experimental design
field experiment
evaluate the applications
does have real life applications
digit span can be used to explain real life cognitive skills as people with higher digit spans are better readers and have a higher intelligence
evaluate the scientific credibility
it has scientific credibility
tight controls establish cause and effect(nobody had repeated a school year or had any difficulties)
it was a field experiment , other extraneous variables could effect the results like differences of sub vocalisation in Spanish but this was addressed by researches after the study
meaning that there could be other reasons for the difference in digit span score that aren’t age
what type of data was used in part 2
secondary
what was the conclusion
digit span increases with age from 5-17 which contrasts with Anglo-Saxon data which says that digit span increases until 15yrs old
subvocal rehearsal starts at 7
digit span for Spanish people is lower because their words are longer than English words
digit span declines with age but dementia didn’t impact this
capacity of the phonological loop is affected by age and not dementia
