ABSTRACT
This chapter re-examines the question by studying the learning capacity of a patient P. V., with a very pure deficit in short-term memory. Since the 1960s, there has been controversy as to whether long-term learning might depend on some form of temporary short-term storage. The concept of a phonological short-term store that forms part of the articulatory loop slave system is capable of explaining a wide range of short term memory phenomena. The chapter begins by studying P. V's capacity to comprehend spoken and written prose. It finds that when her comprehension was tested using relatively demanding material in which it was necessary to maintain surface structure across several intervening words, her performance was significantly impaired. P.V. was shown to perform normally on a number of long-term memory tasks involving meaningful words. The purpose of the experiment: paired-associate word learning was to ensure that P.V. did indeed show normal long-term learning when meaningful material was employed.
