Martin R C
Psychology Department, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251.
Mem Cognit. 1993 Mar;21(2):176-83. doi: 10.3758/bf03202730.
Traditional models of memory assume that short-term memory, as measured by memory span, plays an important role in linguistic processing and the learning of verbal information. Contradicting this view are findings from a brain-damaged patient, E.A., who, despite a verbal memory span of about two items, demonstrated normal sentence comprehension in a variety of tasks. She was, however, impaired whenever verbatim phonological information had to be maintained or learned. These results and those from other patients with reduced span suggest that the phonological storage capacity that is critical to memory span plays only a limited role in language processing, specifically in the maintenance and learning of phonological forms. Implications for models of short-term memory are discussed. It is argued that short-term memory should be seen as deriving from the processing and retentive capacities of language processing modules, with span tasks drawing on only a subset of these modules.
传统的记忆模型认为，以记忆广度衡量的短期记忆在语言处理和言语信息学习中起重要作用。然而，脑损伤患者E.A.的研究结果却与这一观点相悖。尽管E.A.的言语记忆广度约为两个项目，但她在各种任务中都表现出正常的句子理解能力。然而，每当必须保持或学习逐字的语音信息时，她就会受损。这些结果以及其他记忆广度降低患者的结果表明，对记忆广度至关重要的语音存储能力在语言处理中，特别是在语音形式的保持和学习中，仅起有限的作用。本文讨论了这些结果对短期记忆模型的启示。有人认为，短期记忆应被视为源自语言处理模块的处理和保持能力，而广度任务仅利用了这些模块的一个子集。
