Contemporary Study: Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil (2012) Lab experiment AIM: To investigate the development of the phonological loop in children aged 5-17 using digit span as a measure of phonological capacity. Compare findings to previous research of adult, aged and dementia patients.

Procedure Who? 570 volunteers from Madrid schools spoke spanish . Aged 5-17. 5 different age groups Controlled for education and cognitive levels: no Ps had repeated a year. No hearing/reading/writing difficulties. What? Independent measures. Digit span test. (random digits) When? 2012. Task done in Ps breaks individually. Where? P’s school.

Procedure Experimenters read aloud a sequence of digits They read one digit per second. Each sequence read aloud increased by 1 digit in length after every three times Pps digit span is the maximum length at which they could recall at least two of the three series with no errors. Participants were asked to recall all the digits in the same order

Findings Digit span increases with age from 3.76 at 5 years to 5.83 at 17 years Compared to Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV: agrees with increase with age, but S&H shows lower digit span in all age groups when compared to English. Elderly participants have significantly higher digit span than 5 Year olds but not other age groups comparing elderly and dementia sufferers showed no significant difference = impoverished digit span is due to age not dementia Digit span increases over time, which makes it similar to English Research However overall span is lower for Spanish compared to the span of 7 found in Anglo-Saxon.

Conclusion Digit span increases through childhood into adolescence Spanish digit span is significantly shorter than Anglo-Saxon most likely due to word length. It is also possible to suggest that poor digit span is due to ageing rather than dementia

Evaluation G R A V E Large sample (570) Ethnocentric: only used Spanish participants (but did compare across cultures) Age bias – only students R Lots of controls (1 sec per digit, same digits used, standardised procedure) Controlled sample for extraneous variables (e.g. repeating a year, hearing issues etc) A Supports phonological loop developing around age of 7 Supports Miller’s magic number of 7 – but only conducted on English speaking – highlights cultural differences V Low ecological validity – not always tested in breaks, with a digit span test on our own Good face validity – looks like a digit span test E Very few ethical problems Participants volunteered – automatically gives consent.