Contemporary Study - Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil (2012)

What was the aim of the study?

to investigate the development if the phonological loop component of the working memory using verbal digit span

Where did the study take place?

field environment, school in Madrid

What was the independent variable?

year group

What was the DV?

mean verbal digit span

Describe the participants.

575 children age 5 to 17 all born in Spain from a mix of schools

Which factor was ruled out which could've affected the results?

hearing, reading and writing disorders and other cognitive impairments

What did the participants listen to?

a sequence of random digits read aloud, gradually increasing by one length at a time, starting with 3 sequences of 3 digits then 3 sequences of 4 digits

What was digit span defined as?

the longest sequence each child could recall, two times out of the three presented in order and without error

What was the mean digit span for 5 year olds?

3.76

What was the mean digit span for 11 year olds?

5.28

What was the mean digit span for 17 year olds?

5.91

What was the comparison of digit span between a group of elderly participants and 5 to 6 year old kids?

the elderly group were significantly higher than the younger children but around the same as the older children, this was similar for the dementia patients too

What was found for the 9 participants with fvFTD?

had the same digit span as the 5 and 6 year olds

What is fvFTD?

frontal variant frontotemporal dementia

How does digit span increase with age?

up to 15 years old for English children and up to 17 years old for Spanish children

What was the comparison between the Spanish and English children?

average digit span for Spanish children was lower than English children due to the word length effect

Describe the word length effect.

there are more syllables in Spanish numbers than English equivalents so it takes more time to rehearse longer words and more information is lost

When does the word length effect occur?

around the age of 7 when we start to rehearse words sub-vocally so there is no nationality difference for digit span until then

What did the comparison of dementia groups, healthy elderly people and schoolchildren suggest?

the capacity of the phonological loop component in working memory is affected more by age than dementia

Comment on the generalisability.

the sample of fvFTD participants only had 9 people which reduces the power of the statistical test and increases the chance of a type 1 error

What is a type 1 error?

a significant result is found when none exists

Comment on the validity.

several standardised procedures were used (e.g. read aloud at a constant rate of 1 per second) which helps to control potentially confounding variables, increasing internal validity

What could reduce the validity?

researchers reported that the children didn't 'present' with cognitive impairments so they weren't directly tested and researchers relied on parents to inform them

What did Gignac and Weiss 2015 find?

people with a longer digit span are better readers and have higher general intelligence

What did Giofre et al 2016 find?

short digit span is associated with specific learning disorders such as dyslexia

Comment on the application.

digit span can be used to explain people's crucial real-life cognitive skill