sebastian and hernandez gil - contemporary study

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

• to analyse the development patterns of the phonological loop in children by looking at the age at which the digit span stopped increasing.
• too look at the decline of digit span in older people, including those with dementia

Question 2

sample

Answer 2

• 570 voluntary ppts
• aged between 5 and 17
• they were all born in spain
• selected from both public and private schools
• no children had repeated a year or had any cognitive impairments

Question 3

procedure

Answer 3

• carried out individually during ppts breaks at school
• digit span material consisted of random sequences of digits read aloud by the experimenters at a rate of one per second. an item was gradually added to increase the sequence
• started with three sequences of three digits and another one would be added if they’re called at least 2/3 in order
• digit span is defined as the maximum length at which ppts could recall 2/3 sequences with no errors

Question 4

results

Answer 4

• shows that digit span increased with age.
• data: age 5 = mean digit span of 3.76, age 15-17 =5.83
• comparison study for results: 2010 study looked at 25 healthy older people compared with 25 people with alzheimer’s disease and 9 people with fronto-temporal lobe dementia. mean for controls = 4.44, for alzheimer’s = 4.20.

Question 5

conclusion

Answer 5

• digit span increases with age from 5-17. this led to the discovery that digit span as higher for anglo-saxon children as there digit span increased up to 15 years before reaching adult level.
• healthy older people had a similar digit span to 7 year olds, showing it declines with age. digit span is not affected by dementia

Question 6

strengths

Answer 6

• high reliability. standardised procedure, digits read out at a rate of one per second. therefore, we can repaid this experiment to check for consistency in the developmental pattern of the phonological loop.
• high internal validity. extraneous variables controlled for, e.g. no ppts had repeated a year or had any cognitive impairments. therefore, we can more easily establish a cause and effect between age ad didigt dpan.

Question 7

weaknesses

Answer 7

• low reliability. data was compared to WAIS - III which showed that development of digit span continued after 17 years old. therefore, this questions the credibility of the findings.
• low validity. 2010 study only had 59 ppts split into three separate groups. small sample means that, if anomalies were to occur, results are more likely to be effected/become skewed.