Sebastián and Hernández-Gil (2012)

Question 1

what did they investigate ?

Answer 1

the development of the phonological loop component of working memory

Question 2

how did they aim to measure loop capacity ?

Answer 2

by using verbal digit span

Question 3

what study’s findings did they want to confirm ?

Answer 3

a study with Anglo-Saxon ppts that found that digit span increases up to the age of 15 and then levels off

Question 4

what groups of ppts did they aim to compare ?

Answer 4

spanish schoolchildren with Anglo-Saxon elderly people and people with dementia tested in an earlier study

Question 5

what setting was this experiment conducted in ?

Answer 5

a field setting (school)

Question 6

what was the independent variable ?

Answer 6

the year of schooling (and year group)

Question 7

what was the dependent variable ?

Answer 7

the verbal digit span

Question 8

how many ppts were there ?

Answer 8

575

Question 9

what type of schools were the ppts from ?

Answer 9

pre-,primary and secondary (both public and private)

Question 10

where were the schools ?

Answer 10

Madrid

Question 11

what are 5 controls for the children ?

Answer 11

• all born in Spain
• selected from all 13 years of the Spanish education system
• none had repeated a year
• none presented hearing disorders
• none had reading and writing difficulties

Question 12

when were the children tested ?

Answer 12

individually during break times

Question 13

what did the materials used consist of ?

Answer 13

sequences of random digits that gradually increased by one each time

Question 14

what was the procedure used to test the children ?

Answer 14

• they were read aloud to each ppt
• task began with THREE sequences of THREE digits
• then THREE sequences of FOUR digits and so on…

Question 15

what did the children have to do in the procedure ?

Answer 15

ppts listened to each sequence and then were asked to repeat them in order

Question 16

what is one control given to the children in the procedure

Answer 16

the children were given a practice sequence at the start

Question 17

what was digit span defined by ?

Answer 17

the longest sequence the child could recall, 2/3 of the three presented, in order without error

Question 18

what were the findings ?

Answer 18

• clear increase of digit span with age
• youngest age group (5 years) had a significantly lower average digit span (mean=3.76)
• digit span increased significantly and consistently up to 11 years (mean=5.28)
• then the rate of increase slowed and stabilised up to 17 years (mean=5.91)