Digit Span: Effect of education and culture

• Published in: International journal of psychology 2006-10, Vol.41 (5), p.333-341
• Main Authors: Ostrosky-Solís, Feggy, Lozano, Asucena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age differences; Attention; Education; Memory; Psychometric tests; Recall
• ISSN: 0020-7594; 1464-066X
• DOI: 10.1080/00207590500345724

The Digit Span test is one of the most commonly used measures of immediate verbal recall, attentional capacity, and working memory in neuropsychological research and clinical evaluations. This test comprises two modalities, digits forward and digits backward. It has been established that age, education, and culture are important variables that affect performance on this test. The purposes of this study were as follows. First, performance on digit span in a Spanish‐speaking sample was analysed to establish appropriate age and educational ranges in which data from the Digit Span test can be best analysed, and to determine the contribution of age and education to performance on the digit span forward and backward. Second, different studies on digit span were compared and reviewed in order to identify differences in terms of the variables of age, education, and culture. This study evaluated 2574 Spanish‐speaking subjects and three studies were included in the cross‐cultural analysis. Scores from the Spanish‐speaking sample were matched with the data presented by the other studies according to age and level of education. Results showed that the stronger predicting variable in the Spanish‐speaking sample was the level of education, both for digits forward and backward. Regarding culture, differences were found among the studies on digit span for both the forward and backward conditions. It can be argued that learning to read and write affects the development or usage of the abilities measured by the Digit Span task, and that cultural variables such as language and quality of education might also contribute to the differences found between countries. L'épreuve de «Digit Span» est une des mesures de rappel verbal immédiat, de capacité attentionnelle et de mémoire de travail les plus fréquemment utilisées dans la recherche neuropsychologique et dans les évaluations cliniques. Ce test comporte deux modalités: les digits en avant (forward) et ceux en arrière (backward). Il a été établi que l'âge, l'éducation et la culture sont des variables importantes qui affectent la performance à ce test. Les objectifs de cette étude étaient les suivants: Premièrement, analyser la performance à l'épreuve de la digit span dans un échantillon d'hispanophones, ceci dans le but d'établir l'écart d'âge et d'éducation dans lequel les données du test du digit span peuvent être analysées et de déterminer la contribution de l'âge et de l'éducation à la performance au digit span en avant et