sebastian and hernandez Flashcards
Aim of study one
To investigate the development of the phonological loop in children between the ages of 5 and 17 years using digit span as a measure of phonological capacity.
Aim of study 2
To compare the findings on digit span in children with the findings from their previous research of adult aged and dementia patients
Sample of study 1
570 from private and public school, primary, and secondary school in Madrid- none had hearing impairments, reading/writing or any other cognitive difficulties
Sample of study 2
59 older patients; some healthy and some with dementia (either Alzheimer’s Disease or Fronto-Temporal Lobe Dementia)
What type of measure was it? S1
Independent measures - eahc child only did 1 condition
Procedure S1
Three sequences of three digits (numbers) which were read out by the experimenters at a rate of one per second. Participants were asked to listen carefully to them and recall them in the same order as they were presented.
An additional digit increased the length of the sentence with each round.
Procedure of S2
Three sequences of three digits (numbers) which were read out by the experimenters at a rate of one per second. Participants were asked to listen carefully to them and recall them in the same order as they were presented.
An additional digit increased the length of the sentence with each round.
RESULTS OF STUDY 1
Three sequences of three digits (numbers) which were read out by the experimenters at a rate of one per second. Participants were asked to listen carefully to them and recall them in the same order as they were presented.
An additional digit increased the length of the sentence with each round.
results summarised s1
As you get older, your DIGIT SPAN INCREASES.
This was the same in Spain as other countries – suggesting a UNIVERSAL PHENOMENON.
BUT… The digit span is on average less in Spain than English speaking countries due to the word length effect and spanish numbers have longer syllables
results of p2
digit span of the healthy elderly group was not significantly different than the other year groups
Patients with fronto-temporal dementia had a digit span that was similar to the youngest groups (5 and 6 year olds)
Patients with Alzheimer’s disease had a higher digit span than the five year olds but did not differ significantly from other year groups
conclusions
Digit span expands up until at least age 17 (Spanish) rather than 15 (English/America)
Digit span for Spanish ppts is lower than that found in English studies
Could be due to the WORD LENGTH EFFECT – the longer the word, the longer it takes to perform the rehearsal and the fewer words can be held.
For the second study, the results may have happened because the phonological loop is affected by age in general, not so much by dementias,
Because healthy elderly controls had a digit span similar to 7 year olds and dementia patients similar to 6 year olds – digit span not so affected by dementia
Generalisability PEEC
A key weakness to the study is the lack of generalisability. For example, the sampling technique was volunteer sampling which may prove to be a weakness and hinder results as people with a specific personality type may of volunteered .Furthermore in his 2nd study only 59 ppts ppted(elderly,alzheimers or fvFTD) which means that the findings from this particular group may be less generalisable and in his 1st study he scanneed ppts fro any hearing/writing or cognitive impairments meaning it cannot be generalised to that part of the population .However you can argue his study is slightly generalisable due to his large sample of 570 kids from private, public ,secondary, and primary schools in Madrid. This means his results can still be generalisable to the population.,
PEEC for Reliability
A strength of the study is that it is reliable, as standardised procedures were used as it was a lab experiment.
For example, all of the participants were given the same digits to recall in the same amount of time (each digit was read out a rate on one digit per second)
This means that the experiment can be replicated producing consistent results, and the results can be compared with other similar studies. Therefore, this is a highly replicable study meaning we can compare the results from different studies, such as in study 1 and study 2, where the digit span of children were compared with the digit span of the elderly to show how the phonological loop changed over time
(OR the Spanish & English results were compared to show a difference in digit span)
PEEC for Applications
A key strength of his study is that it has practical applications. By knowing how the phonological loop develops in children can help in us designing learning strategies appropriate with their age
For example, children at about 5 years old only showed a digit span of a mean = 3.76.
Therefore, understanding the developing digit span means we can create educational materials that will match their phonological loop capacity. Furthermore, it’s used by schools to work out whether a child has verbal impairments and understand Alzheimer’s disease
PEEC for Ecological Validity
A weakness of this study is that it can be that counting up with digits the task that participants had to do was artificial and therefore lacks mundane realism.
This means that the study may lack ecological validity, which means that the findings might not apply to everyday life.
The participants had to recall as many digits as they could in order, which is something that they wouldn’t necessarily be doing in real life. However, it was a very accurate way of measuring digit spans, which helps increase the internal validity Furthermore, it may be a familiar environment for kids as it has been used in schools to test for any impairments
