Impairment of short‐term memory

Abstract

A study of differential impairment of short-term memory is presented, centering about the question of kinds of information stored and retrieved. True serial-order recall, an example of retrieval ordered according to characteristics of presented events, is compared with same-order recall, which is an example of retrieval ordered according to characteristics of the presentation (order). The finding that some brain- damaged patients show differential impairment of same-order recall with preservation of true serial-order recall is interpreted as consistent with the assumption of at least 2 types of short-term memory, although it is not yet clear whether these are 2 types of storage or 2 types of retrieval. In either case it appears that what is retained in short-term storage may be information about how to retrieve another kind of information from long-term storage, and that analysis of memory impairment requires consideration of the kinds of information involved.