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 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.
• 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
• Weakness 1 of Sebastian Hernandez Gil?

  Information we need to recall isn’t always read aloud to us individually so this study is low in ecological validity as these tasks aren’t accurate of how we store information in real life.
• Strength 3 of Sebastian and Hernandez Gil?

  Standardised as they controlled for reading and writing ability along with every participant being presented the same sequences of digits. This is a strength as it means the study can be repeated with the same controls put in to check for consistencies, increasing the reliability.
• Weakness 3 of Sebastian and Hernandez Gil?

  Doesn’t take into account individual differences as some groups may have a low or high digit span due to the memory of the members of their group and not the actual age group. This suggests data gathered about the max digits recalled by different age groups may be less accurate since a matched pairs design wasn’t used decreasing the validity.
• Study could be improved by using participants from around the world and not just Madrid so the data gathered about the max digits recalled by different age groups is more representative and can be generalised to the wider population.
• Study may be useful as can be applied in healthcare to see declining phonological capacity. May be less useful as patients who speak other languages with longer words may have a shorter digit span despite not having a declining phonological capacity
• Sebastian and Hernandez Gil also aimed to investigate whether the storage capacity of the phonological loop was affected by chunking.
• Digit span was recorded by the maximum length the participants could recall 2/3 attempts of the sequence in the correct order without error.
• Sebastian and Hernandez Gil results

  Preschool 5 Years - 3.76

  Primary 6-8 Years - 4.34

  Primary 9-11 Years - 5.13

  Secondary school 12-14 Years - 5.46

  Secondary school 15-17 Years - 5.83

  Alzheimer's - 4.20

  Dementia - 4.22

  Healthy older people - 4.44