Impairment in processing meaningless verbal material in several modalities: the relationship between short-term memory and phonological skills.

Phonological processing abilities were studied in a patient who, following focal brain damage, showed selective impairment in non-word reading, writing, and repetition and also a severe short-term memory (STM) deficit specific for auditorily presented verbal material. The patient could execute tasks involving phonemic manipulation and awareness perfectly. Our data, in contrast with earlier observations in a case of developmental phonological dyslexia, show that acquired impairment in non-word reading, writing, repetition, and immediate memory may occur despite good phonological processing abilities. The role of STM in processing meaningless verbal material is discussed.