Dissociable components of short-term memory and their relation to long-term learning

Short-term memory (STM) includes dissociable phonological and semantic comp onents (R.C. Martin, 1993). Previous findings indicate that phonological ST M capacity supports learning of novel phonological forms, such as new vocab ulary (e.g., Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998). It was hypothesised th at semantic STM capacity would support the learning of novel semantic infor mation. Five aphasic patients were tested who demonstrated deficits in the short-term retention of either phonological or semantic information. Four o f the five patients demonstrated learning deficits in a paired associate pa radigm that corresponded to their STM deficits. One patient with a severe d eficit in phonological STM but a better-preserved ability to retain semanti c information showed better learning of new semantic information than new p honological information. Three patients with a greater deficit in semantic than phonological STM showed the reverse. A fifth patient with a severe sem antic STM deficit failed to show learning for either type of material. Resu lts suggest that the semantic and phonological components of STM are essent ial for the long-term learning of corresponding representations in longterm memory.