Treffer: A double dissociation between memory span and word processing among neurological patients attests to the functional independence of verbal short-term memory.

Title:
A double dissociation between memory span and word processing among neurological patients attests to the functional independence of verbal short-term memory.
Authors:
Bormann T; Klinik für Neurologie Und Neurophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany., Seyboth M; Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany., Kümmerer D; Klinik für Neurologie Und Neurophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.; Ergotherapie Akademie Südwest Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany., Glauche V; Klinik für Neurologie Und Neurophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany., Rijntjes M; Klinik für Neurologie Und Neurophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany., Weiller C; Klinik für Neurologie Und Neurophysiologie, Universitätsklinikum Freiburg, Medizinische Fakultät, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Source:
Journal of neuropsychology [J Neuropsychol] 2025 Oct 07. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Oct 07.
Publication Model:
Ahead of Print
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101468753 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1748-6653 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 17486645 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Neuropsychol Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: 2011- : Chichester : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: Leicester : British Psychological Society, c2007-
References:
Almor, A., Kempler, D., MacDonald, M. C., Andersen, E. S., & Tyler, L. K. (1999). Why do Alzheimer patients have difficulty with pronouns? Working memory, semantics, and reference in comprehension and production in Alzheimer's disease. Brain and Language, 67, 202–227.
Baddeley, A. D. (1990). The development of the concept of working memory: Implications and contributions of neuropsychology. In G. Vallar & T. Shallice (Eds.), Neuropsychological impairments of short‐term memory (pp. 54–73). Cambridge University Press.
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (2019). The phonological loop as a buffer store: An update. Cortex, 112, 91–106.
Baldo, J. V., Katseff, S., & Dronkers, N. F. (2012). Brain regions underlying repetition and auditory‐verbal short‐term memory deficits in aphasia: Evidence from voxel‐based lesion symptom mapping. Aphasiology, 26(354), 338.
Bormann, T., Seyboth, M., Umarova, R., & Weiller, C. (2015). “I know your name, but not your number” – Patients with verbal short‐term memory deficits are impaired in learning sequences of digits. Neuropsychologia, 72, 80–86.
Bormann, T., Wolfer, S., Hachmann, W., Neubauer, C., & Konieczny, L. (2015). Fast reading responses in pure alexia: “Fast, yet serial”. Neurocase, 21(2), 251–267.
Buchsbaum, B. R., & D'Esposito, M. (2019). A sensorimotor view of verbal working memory. Cortex, 112, 134–148.
Caplan, D., Waters, G., & Howard, D. (2012). Slave systems in verbal short‐term memory. Aphasiology, 26(3/4), 279–316.
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. S. (1999). Verbal working memory and sentence comprehension. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(1), 77–94.
Cowan, N. (2019). Short‐term memory based on activated long‐term memory: A review in response to Norris (2017). Psychological Bulletin, 145(8), 822–847.
Cowan, N., Morey, C. C., & Naveh‐Benjamin, M. (2021). An embedded processes approach to working memory: How is it distinct from other approaches and to what ends. In R. Logie, V. Camos, & N. Cowan (Eds.), Working memory: State of the science (pp. 44–84). Oxford University Press.
Crawford, J. R., & Garthwaite, P. H. (2002). Investigation of the single case in neuropsychology: Confidence limits on the abnormality of test scores and test score differences. Neuropsychologia, 40, 1196–1208.
Crawford, J. R., Garthwaite, P. H., & Wood, L. T. (2011). Inferential methods for comparing two single cases. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 27, 377–400.
De Bleser, R., Cholewa, J., Stadie, N., & Tabatabaie, S. (2004). LEMO‐Lexikon modellorientiert: Einzelfalldiagnostik bei Aphasie, Dyslexie und Dysgraphie; Diagnostikband Sprachverständnis. Urban & Fischer.
Dittmann, J. (1996). Die exemplarische Analyse eines Arbeitsgedächtnis‐Defizits. Arbeitsberichte der Forschungsgruppe Neurolinguistik am Deutschen Seminar I der Universität Freiburg.
Geschwind, N., Quadfasel, F. A., & Segarra, J. (1968). Isolation of the speech area. Neuropsychologia, 6(4), 327–340.
Jefferies, E., Jones, R. W., Bateman, D., & Lambon Ralph, M. A. (2005). A semantic contribution to nonword recall? Evidence for intact phonological processes in semantic dementia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 22(2), 183–212.
Jones, G., & Macken, B. (2015). Questioning short‐term memory and its measurement: Why digit span measures long‐term associative learning. Cognition, 144, 1–13.
Leff, A. P., Schofield, T. M., Crinion, J. T., Seghier, M. L., Grogan, A., Green, D. W., & Price, C. J. (2009). The left superior temporal gyrus is a shared substrate for auditory short‐term memory and speech comprehension: Evidence from 210 patients with stroke. Brain, 132(12), 3401–3410.
Machtynger, J., & Shallice, T. (2009). Normalizing serial position analyses: The proportional accountability algorithm. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 26(2), 217–222.
Majerus, S. (2013). Language repetition and short‐term memory: An integrative framework. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 357.
Martin, N., & Ayala, J. (2004). Measurements of auditory‐verbal STM span in aphasia: Effects of item, task, and lexical impairment. Brain and Language, 89(3), 464–483.
Morey, C. C., Rhodes, S., & Cowan, N. (2019). Sensory‐motor integration and brain lesions: Progress toward explaining domain‐specific phenomena within domain‐general working memory. Cortex, 112, 149–161.
Norris, D. (2017). Short‐term memory and long‐term memory are still different. Psychological Bulletin, 143(9), 992–1009.
Nozari, N., Kittredge, A., Dell, G. S., & Schwartz, M. F. (2010). Naming and repetition in aphasia: Steps, routes, and frequency effects. Journal of Memory and Language, 63, 541–559.
Oberauer, K., Lewandowsky, S., Awh, E., Brown, G. D., Conway, A., Cowan, N., & Ward, G. (2018). Benchmarks provide common ground for model development: Reply to Logie (2018) and Vandierendonck (2018). Psychological Bulletin, 144(9), 972–977.
Page, M. P. A., & Norris, D. G. (2009). A model linking immediate serial recall, the Hebb repetition effect and the learning of phonological word forms. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 364, 3737–3753.
Papagno, C., Vernice, M., & Cecchetto, C. (2013). Phonology without semantics? Good enough for verbal short‐term memory. Evidence from a patient with semantic dementia. Cortex, 49(3), 626–636.
Shallice, T. (2019). The single case study of memory. In S. E. MacPherson & S. Della Sala (Eds.), Cases of amnesia. Routledge.
Shallice, T., & Papagno, C. (2019). Impairments of auditory‐verbal short‐term memory: Do selective deficits of the input phonological buffers exist? Cortex, 112, 107–122.
Shallice, T., & Vallar, G. (1990). The impairment of auditory‐verbal short‐term storage. In G. Vallar & T. Shallice (Eds.), Neuropsychological impairments of short‐term memory (pp. 11–53). Cambridge University Press.
Vallar, G., Di Betta, A. M., & Silveri, M. C. (1997). The phonological short‐term store‐rehearsal system: Patterns of impairment and neural correlates. Neuropsychologia, 35, 795–812.
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: aphasia; language; short‐term memory; working memory
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20251007 Latest Revision: 20251007
Update Code:
20251007
DOI:
10.1111/jnp.70013
PMID:
41055690
Database:
MEDLINE

Weitere Informationen

Reports of patients with impaired verbal short-term memory are central to the debate of whether there are independent short-term stores or whether immediate repetition is supported by activated long-term memory. Patients with selective impairments of verbal short-term memory support models with independent buffers. However, it has been argued that these patients were too rare to provide reliable data. Second, it has been suggested that these patients might suffer from subtle impairments of word perception, comprehension or production which previous studies had failed to notice. Ten neurological patients were assessed. Nine participants had impaired immediate spans for digits, letters and words whilst having unimpaired word perception, comprehension and production. Another patient exhibited better preserved immediate repetition despite severely impaired word perception, comprehension and production. This double dissociation provides unequivocal evidence for the functional independence of short- and long-term memory. The size of the present group of STM participants, the largest to date, makes it impossible to ignore data from neuropsychological patients.
(© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Neuropsychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The British Psychological Society.)