Immediate memory for word lists and sentences in a patient with deficient auditory short-term memory

Abstract

This study of a patient with a mild conduction aphasia again traces impaired repetition to faulty auditory short-term memory. In serial recall, for example, the normal recency effect was absent with auditory but not visual lists. The patient's behavior in immediate memory tasks was in some ways more characteristic of delayed recall, suggesting that an intact long-term memory was responsible for the residual short-term performance. The patient also showed a remarkable ability to paraphrase sentences he could not repeat verbatim, a result which has implications for the role of auditory memory in language comprehension.