Studied by 1 person
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
Note
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