Contemporary study (S + H Gil)

• Our contemporary study in cognitive psychology is Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil
• Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil found that the number of items recalled increased with age up until about 65 years old when it started to decline. This supports the idea that our WM declines with age due to changes in the brain
• Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil found that older adults performed worse on tasks requiring manipulation than younger adults suggesting that they have less control over their attention
• Strength 1 of Sebastian and Hernandez gil?

  Demand characteristics will be lower as participants only took part in one age related condition so wouldn’t have guessed what was expected. This is a strength because validity will be higher as participants recall will be more accurate of their PL capacity.
• Strength 2 of Sebastian and Hernandez gil?

  A strength of the study is that participants volunteered to take part in it so informed consent was obtained. Therefore the study was low in ethical issues.
• Weakness 1 of Sebastian Hernandez gil?

  Tasks don’t reflect storing information in real life. This is a weakness because it means the study is low in ecological validity.
• Weakness 2 of Sebastian Hernandez gil?

  One weakness is that the study had a restricted sample as only children aged 5-17 from Madrid were used to investigate digit span. This is a weakness because it means the results about digit span are low in generalisability as not representative of other Spanish speaking countries.
• Aim (S+H Gil)?

  To investigate the development of the phonological loop in children between the ages of 5 and 17 using digit span as a measure of phonological capacity.
• Procedure (S+H Gil)?

  570 volunteers from schools in Madrid. All native Spanish and impairments in hearing and reading controlled. Tested individually and participants had to verbally recall increasing digits in the right order. Students had to get 2/3 attempts correct to move up to the next sequence of digits.
• Conclusion (S + H Gil)?

  Digit span increased with age and digit span in Spanish population is shorter than Anglo Saxon culture due to the length of words.
• One weakness of (S + H Gil) is that it is low in ecological validity as these tasks don’t reflect storing information in real life
• One strength of (S+H Gil) is that participants volunteered to take part in the study so informed consent was obtained. They were also debriefed about the experiment which shows this study is low in ethical issues.
• Another strength of (S+H Gil) is that impairments in hearing and reading were controlled. This reduces the affect of extraneous variables making the study more valid