1. Sebastian & Hernandez-Gil (2012)
A01 session! You should be able to describe the study and refer to the conclusions and implications of the study
Sebastian & Hernandez-Gil (2012)
Study of the developmental pattern of digit span

2. Background

3. STM improves from age of 6
3-4 year olds use phonological loop however young children forget quite quickly due to quick decay
Sub-vocal rehearsal is used from 7 years of age
The use of sub-vocal rehearsal increases the digit span with age

4. Before proceeding - can we define the following terms?
Digit span?
Sub-vocal rehearsal?
Phonological loop from WMM?
Primary Data
Secondary Data
Individually define these words

5. Sorting cards under the correct heading (recap based on your H/W)
Have you missed anything in your APRC?
Do you need to add anything to your notes?
2. IV
1. Aims
3. DV
4. Procedure - sample
5. Procedure
6. Results (part one)
Any questions?
7. Results (part two)

6. Results – Primary data
Digit span increased with age (agreement with Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children IV (WISC-IV)
Digit span rises steadily until around 11 years old, then slows
5 year olds had the lowest digit span, average 3.76
17 year olds had the highest digit span at an average of 5.91

7. Results – Secondary data
Those with Alzheimer’s dementia had a digit span of 4.20
Those with fronto-temporal dementia had a digit span of 4.22
The healthy older people (controls) had a digit span of 4.44
No significant difference between healthy older people and those with dementia – it is age that affects digit span and not dementia

8. Results –secondary data
Overall capacity of digit span was lower in the Spanish population compared to the digit span of seven, found in Anglo-Saxon studies
This may be due to the Spanish language - digits in Spanish tend to be 2 or more syllables (e.g. Uno instead of one)
It takes more time to sub-vocally repeat and rehearse Spanish words – taking up more space in the phonological loop (limited capacity) resulting in lower digit span

9. Conclusions Digit span increases from 5 to 17 years old
The English data had a digit span increasing to 15 years old, where- as the Spanish study found an increase up to 17 years
English data showed adult digit span of approx. 7 digits, compared with Spanish data which showed approx. 1 digit lower. Researcher suggested this could be to do with language – Spanish numbers 9in words) are longer than English, e.g. ‘One’ / ‘Uno’
Age appears to be the cause of poor digit span as opposed to dementias

10. Quiz on Sebastián & Hernández-Gil’s study (2012)

11. Q1 Digit span is the distance between your thumb and little finger
the number of digits you can remember in a sequence
a phone number
the number of syllables in a number

12. Q2 Where did Sebastián & Hernández-Gil carry out their 2012 research?
in schools in Barcelona
in schools in London
in schools in Madrid
in old peoples’ homes in Madrid

13. Q3 How did Sebastián & Hernández-Gil use controls?
no children had repeated a year
no children had hearing difficulties
no children had reading or writing difficulties
all of these

14. Q4 How would you describe the sample from he first part of the study?
560, 5-17 year olds from various schools in Madrid
570, 5-16 year olds from various schools in Madrid
517, year olds from various schools in Madrid
570, year olds from various schools in Madrid

15. Q5 Which of these findings are correct?
5 year old average digit span was 4.20
5 year old average digit span was 3.76
17 year old average digit span was 5.91
Healthy older people (control group) digit span was 4.20

16. Q6
Sebastián & Hernández-Gil’s digit span results compared to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV:
were completely different
agreed that digit span increased with age
agreed on the maximum digit span reached
were generally higher

17. Q7
Sebastián & Hernández-Gil’s explained that the difference in digit span between Anglo- Saxon and Spanish children might be due to
the school system
eyesight
boredom levels
word length

18. Q8
Sebastián & Hernández-Gil’s explained that word length effect impacts on
subvocal rehearsal
episodic buffer
visuo-spatial sketchpad
all of these

19. Q9
Sebastián & Hernández-Gil’s used which model of memory to base their research on?
multi-store model
working memory model
reconstructive memory
episodic and semantic memory

20. Q10 Subvocal rehearsal is not present until 5 years 7 years
adolescence
old age

21. H/W
1. Explain how memory is developmental in nature by drawing on your contemporary study (4 marks)
2. GRAVE
3. Choose the “strongest” points for this study (2 strengths and 2 weaknesses)