Contemporary Study

• Aim of the experiment

  Investigate the development of the phonological loop in Spanish children from age 5-17 then compare to an earlier study of healthy seniors and those with dementia
• How many volunteers and where were they from?

  570 from Madrid schools
• How were participant variables controlled?

  No ppts has repeated a year, no hearing/reading/writing difficulties
• What the was the experiment design?

  Independent measures, digit span test, done individually in ppts breaks at schools
• Experiment procedure

  • 3 sequences of 3 digits read out by experimenter at 1 digit per second, ppts asked to recall in the same order, given an example to check they understand
  • Gradual increase in digits
  • Moved on if they got 2/3 sequences right
  • Digit span is the maximum length at which ppts could recall at least 2 of the 3 series with no errors
• Results

  Digit span increases from 3.76 at 5 to 5.91 at 17 -> digit span increases with age
• Results compared to the Wechster Intelligence Scale for children

  The increase in digit span with age is the same but S&H show a lower digit span for all age groups in Spain
• Results when compared to the earlier study of seniors and those with dementia

  Healthy seniors have a digit span above 6 years old. Alzheimer and frontotemporal dementia patients show a digit span similar to 6 year olds
• How does digit span change?

  Digit span increases with age, up to 15 in Anglo Saxons and 17 in Spanish population and words have more syllables
• Why is there no difference in digit span before 7

  No sub vocal rehearsal until 7
• How does word length affect recall?

  Increased word length - increased rehearsal - loss of info

  Increase time to utter word - increased chance of fade
• How does old age affect digit span?

  It limits digit span, but dementia does not limit it
• Generalisability

  only generalisable to spanish speaking children as the number of syllables differ in each language
• Reliability

  Standardised procedure, stimulus, time of day and procedure controlled, some potential extraneous variables as it was done at break at school
• Application

  We can see what age learning is easier and the most valuable, apply to primary education
• Validity

  • Low mundane realism, stimulus was artificial and not like everyday stm tasks, low ecological validity -> memory may be worse due to stress
  • higher internal validity as the results are less likely to be impacted by other factors (as they were controlled for education & cognitive levels) meaning only age effects the digit span -> cause and effect
• Ethics

  The U16 and Alzheimer's and Frontotemporal dementia groups were vulnerable, difficult to get full informed consent, researchers had to make sure family members were aware
• What is your cog contemporary study?

  Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil (2012)
• How does old age affect the phonological loop?

  
  

  affected by age but not so much by dementia