ABSTRACT
Over the last 10 years, we have been developing a theory of short-term memory (STM) that includes separable semantic and phonological retention capacities (Martin & He, 2004; Martin, Lesch, & Bartha, 1999; Martin & Romani, 1994; Martin, Shelton, & Yaffee, 1994). This claim has been based primarily on different patterns of STM deficits demonstrated by aphasic patients, suggesting that some have a deficit primarily in retaining phonological information and others a deficit primarily in maintaining semantic information. In the past, we have assumed that these deficits derive from overly rapid decay of information in buffers dedicated to the storage of phonological or semantic codes (Martin et al., 1999). Recently, we have obtained evidence that the pattern associated with a semantic STM deficit may result from a deficit in one aspect of executive function-specifically, a deficit in the inhibition of irrelevant information (Hamilton & Martin, 2005). This deficit appears to be specific to the inhibition of irrelevant verbal information, suggesting that inhibition processes are not global, but may be specific to particular domains.
