Sebastian & Hernandez Flashcards
What did Sebastian and Hernandez do?
Examined the development pattern of the digit span in Spanish population to test the phonological loop component of working memory.
What were the aims?
(4)
-study the developmental pattern of working memory over time.
-analyse the developmental pattern of the phonological loop in children 5-17.
-look at decline of digit span in older people, including those with 2 types of dementia.
-see if Anglo Saxon data is replicated or wether the digit span would be higher for Spanish speakers.
What was the hypothesis?
What sort of data was they using?
That there is a difference in digit span which increases with ages 5-17 years.
Primary data.
What was the sample for this experiment?
570 volunteers ages 5-17 years from the Spanish population and from various schools in Madrid.
No participants had repeated a school year and did not have any learning difficulties
By the children not having any learning difficulties, what did this create?
It created control of education and cognitive differences.
How did the experiment work?
-Participants were split into 5 groups and the digit span was measured.
They were tested individually in their break time.
-Sequences of digits were read aloud one per second and the digit list increased one digit per sequence.
-It started with 3 sequences of 3 digits.
-They had to recall the digits in the same order as presented.
What was the independent and dependent variable of this experiment?
Independent variable-age of participants
Dependent variable-digit span
What is the digit span?
The measuring of the number of digits in the sequence that were recalled correctly.
What did they compare their primary data to?
Secondary data from a previous study in 2010.
What happened in the secondary data study?
25 healthy older people were used as a control group to compare against 25 people with Alzheimer’s and 9 people with fronto-temporal dementia.
What did they get data for in the secondary data study?
Data was gathered about the digit snap of the three groups using the same way as the primary data study.
What were the results of Sebastian and Hernandez’s study?
The digit span increased with ages from 5-17
The preschool children ages 5 had a very low digit span and showed a significant difference from the others.
What did they find when they compared both studies?
-They found that elderly participants has a significantly higher digit span compared to the 5 year olds in the study, but it was not significantly different.
-the patients with Alzheimer’s showed a similar profile however patients with Fronto-Tempal dementia had a digit span that was significantly similar to the younger age group.
What did they find when they compared the elderly patients to the ones with dementia?
It showed no significant difference suggesting that the digit span does decrease with age when becoming elderly and this is irrespective of whether you have dementia or not.
What was the conclusion of this study?
The digit span was found to increase with age from 5-17 years
