Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil (2012) Flashcards
(18 cards)
Aim
Investigate development of phonological loop in working memory
Sample
575 spanish children
Pre, primary and secondary school in Madrid 5-17 yrs old
Setting of experiment
Field settings - schoolds
Independent variable
Years of school
Dependent variable
Mean verbal digit span
Procedure of digit span testing
Sequences of random digits, increase by 1 digit every correct answer
Read aloud to each participant individually
Findings
5 yrs = mean 3.76 digit span
11 yrs = 5.28
17 yrs = 5.91
Elderly anglo-saxons = higher digit span than 5/6 yr olds
Dementia has similar to 5/6 yr olds
Conclusions
Digit span increases with age
Capacity of phonological loop affected by age rather than dementia
(Spanish = lower digit span than english -> but word length is longer
Word length effects because we rehearse words sub-vocally, should be no difference in digit span)
Construct validity
High
Control over extraneous variables => used standardised procedures, digits read to them at 1 per second which is the same for everyone
Helped control confounding variables to a reasonable degree of internal validity
CA
Children were not tested for hearing impairments
Impairments could have influenced performance on digit span
Weakness
Low ecological validity, way they measured STM does not equate to real life
OR
Dementia group sample small
Conclusions regarding functionality of phonological loop in old age may be questionable
Application
People with longer digit spans are better readers and have higher general intelligence
Gignac and Weiss -> Shorter digit spans linked to dyslexia
Digit span can be used to explain important real-life cognitive skills
Representative
only used spanish speaking children in madrid, so cant generalise to other languages beyond this population
Use of cross sectional groups
Allowed them to track development of digit span over time without extended duration of conducting longitudinal study
Using digit span as a measurement baddd
Artifical
Limited task validity as children unlikely to learn random sequences of numbers in day-to-day experiences
Replicabilty
Able to test verbal digit span across cultures easily
to understand cross-cultural development and individual differences in phonological processing in working memory
Ecological validity verbal memory
Low
Verbal memory barely used to memorise digit lists, however, digit span linked to reading ability intelligence suggesting similar to verbal memory
Construct validity
Digit span tests linked to ability intelligence, good general measure of verbal memory
