The Short-Term Storage of Auditory and Visual Two-Channel Digits by Elderly Patients with Memory Disorder

Abstract

The investigation to be reported in this paper was conducted with two principal aims in view. Firstly, it was desired to confirm evidence that memory disorder in elderly psychiatric patients may be due to a breakdown of processes underlying short-term retention (Inglis, 1960; Inglis and Sanderson, 1961). Such previous evidence supported the notion that memory disorder may in fact result from a disturbance of one of the mechanisms adduced by Broadbent (1957) to account for the ability of young normal adults to respond sequentially to information simultaneously presented through different sensory channels (e.g. both ears at once). Secondly, it was desired to extend the study of these retention processes in such patients to the case in which the channels for the simultaneous presentation of digits comprise two different sensory modalities (i.e. eye and ear together).