Sebastian and Hernandez - Gil 2012 (contemporary study)

• weakness: limited generalisability


  point: the study has limited generalisability due small sample of ppt with dementia was used

  evidence: only 9 ppts with dementia was used so it limits the ability to generalise the findings of this experiment with individuals with dementia

  explanation: this demonstrates that small sample size reduces the representativeness of the data making it difficult to apply the findings to the wider population of individuals with dementia
• Strength: High Reliability


  point: the study had high reliability due to standardised procedures

  evidence: for example the digits were read out at a consistent rate and the same procedure was applied for all ppts, they also screened ppts for any learning, reading or hearing difficulties.

  explain: this entails that the standardised procedures can be replicated by another and the findings should be similar increasing the confidence of the findings
• strength: high internal validity

  point: study has high internal validity

  evidence: this is evident through the researchers screening each ppt for any learning, reading or hearing difficulties which eliminates any confounding variables

  explain: by eliminating any confounding variables it helps validate the findings of the study and can be used. if confounding variables were not screened for then it could affect the outcome of the findings which may invalidate the experiment as a whole.
• strength: moderate ecological validity

  point: the ecological validity is moderate because it used a naturalistic setting but an artificial task

  evidence: ppts were tested in school environment but the task of recalling digits is not representative of everyday memory tasks

  explanation: this shows while testing in natural settings it increases ecological validity to an extent but the artificial nature of the digit span recall limits the applicability of the findings to everyday memory