Links Between Short-Term Memory and Word Retrieval in Aphasia

Purpose

This study explored the relationship between anomia and verbal short-term memory (STM) in the context of an interactive activation language processing model.

Method

Twenty-four individuals with aphasia and reduced STM spans (i.e., impaired immediate serial recall of words) completed a picture-naming task and a word pair repetition task (a measure of verbal STM). Correlations between verbal STM and word retrieval errors made on the picture-naming task were examined.

Results

A significant positive correlation between naming accuracy and verbal span length was found. More intricate verbal STM analyses examined the relationship between picture-naming error types (i.e., semantic vs. phonological) and 2 measures of verbal STM: (a) location of errors on the word pair repetition task and (b) imageability and frequency effects on the word pair repetition task. Results indicated that, as phonological word retrieval errors (relative to semantic) increase, bias toward correct repetition of high-imageability words increases.

Conclusions

Results suggest that word retrieval and verbal STM tasks likely rely on a partially shared temporary linguistic activation process.

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