Research article summary (published 27 Feb 1993):

Spontaneous recovery of impaired memory span: does comprehension recover?

Full Abstract

We have previously described a patient, T.B., who had a memory span of two digits and a sentence span of three words. He showed no evidence of effects of either phonological similarity or word length on span and his deficit was interpreted as reflecting the impaired functioning of the phonological loop component of working memory. Analysis of his language comprehension indicated normal processing of short sentences, together with a marked deficit in understanding long sentences, whether these were presented visually or auditorily (Baddeley and Wilson, 1988). When re-tested after several years, T.B.'s memory span had increased to nine digits, and showed clear effects of phonological similarity and word length. His performance on a series of language comprehension tests indicated a complete recovery, although he continued to show impairment on two tests of phonological awareness. These results are consistent with the proposed link between phonological working memory and language comprehension. In addition, they indicate a dissociation between short-term phonological memory and phonological awareness.

Author information

Author/s: Wilson, B A (BA); Baddeley, A (A);

Affiliation: MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Case Reports; Journal Article

Journal: Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior (Cortex), published in ITALY. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1993-Mar; vol 29 (issue 1) : pp 153-9

Dates: Created 1993/05/18; Completed 1993/05/18; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 8472553, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Awareness - physiology Brain Damage, Chronic - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology Epilepsy - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology Follow-Up Studies Humans Male Mental Recall - physiology

Middle Aged Neuropsychological Tests Phonetics Retention (Psychology) - physiology Serial Learning - physiology Verbal Behavior - physiology Verbal Learning - physiology

Related articles

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

• Item and order recognition memory in subjects with hypoxic brain injury. 27 Feb 1995
• Aetiological variation in the amnesic syndrome: comparisons using the list discrimination task. 29 Jun 1994
• The phonological short-term store-rehearsal system: patterns of impairment and neural correlates. 30 May 1997
• Semantic short-term memory and its role in sentence processing: a replication. 30 Mar 2004
• Memory and aphasia. 30 May 1997
• Verbal encoding deficits in a patient with a left retrosplenial lesion. 30 Dec 2000
• Cognitive flexibility and mental programming after closed head injuries and anterior or posterior cerebral excisions. 30 Aug 1992
• Memory for the temporal order of events in patients with frontal lobe lesions and amnesic patients. 30 Dec 1989
• Subarachnoid blood on CT and memory dysfunctions in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. 30 Oct 1994

See 100+ related articles.

Related Article Map

Legend: - FREE Full text Article. - Abstract only. - Title only. More help.

See a large map of 100+ related articles.