Soviet Psychology

ISSN: 0038-5751 (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/mrpo19

On the Organization of Short-Term Memory by

Modality

A. R. Luriya & M. Klimovskiy

To cite this article: A. R. Luriya & M. Klimovskiy (1970) On the Organization of Short-Term
Memory by Modality, Soviet Psychology, 8:3-4, 257-263

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/RPO1061-0405080304257

Published online: 19 Dec 2014.

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 Psikhologicheskiye issledovaniya,
1969, NO. 1, 80-85

A. R. Luriya and M. Klimovskiy

ON THE ORGANIZATION O F
SHORT-TERM MEMORY BY MODALITY

The analysis of how a modality affects the structure of the

memory process has until recently been an open question.
During the early stage of development of experimental psy-
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chology, it w a s often maintained that individual differences in

the modality-specific character of memory (visual, auditory,
motor) were quite pronounced and that the classification of
subjects according to "memory type'' was quite easy.
However, it was later shown that other, nonmodality factors
(for example, the degree of meaningfulness o r logical organi-
zation in memory) are so predominant that they conceal the
modal "memory types" and that an investigation of the modal-
specificity of memory in normal adults is of no great interest.
Consequently, investigations on this subject have steadily di-
minished in number, and no special analysis has been made of
the nature of memory mechanisms as they a r e affected by the
participation of some modality.
However, there is a body of evidence that helps to elucidate
this question quite clearly and to illustrate numerous features
of the memory process as it is affected by the use of different
analyzers.

257
 2 58 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

The field providing such possibilities is neuropsychology, in

particular, the study of memory processes in patients with lo-
cal brain lesions.
It had been demonstrated that a lesion of the left temporal
region appreciably disturbed auditory-verbal memory without
affecting visual and kinesthetic memory (1-4).
However, observations of such cases made it possible to un-
dertake a considerably more detailed investigation and to as-
certain those differences in the memory process that appear
in the transition from auditory to visual memorization and,
what is especially interesting, to the role that a particular con-
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dition can play in the visual decoding of an auditorily presented

series.
We shall discuss in detail numerous facts established by ob-
servation of patients with a lesion of the left temporal region
of the brain.
The patient Bl., 35 years old (case history 37637), a
captain, received a serious cranial injury in November
1963 in an automobile accident. He lost consciousness
briefly, after which paresis of the right a r m , ptosis on
the left side, paresis of the lower branch of the right
facial nerve, pathological reflexes on the right, and
aphasia were observed. Pneumoencephalograms
showed a slight right shift of the lateral and third
ventricles. An electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded
four months after the injury showed a delta wave in
the left hemisphere, especially in the temporal region.
All these findings indicated a cortical contusion in the
left temporoparietal region, with possible hemorrhag-
ing in the white brain matter. A neuropsychological
study conducted during the fourth to fifth month after
the trauma showed marked symptoms of acoustic-
mnestic aphasia with forgetting of words, inability to
reproduce a verbal sequence, and severely disturbed
capacity to utter words although word comprehension
was retained (and with only slight deviations in word
meaning); writing capacity gradually reverted to normal,
and written computation was quite good.
 -
SPRING SUMMER 1970 2 59

The central symptom observed in the patient B1. was a se-

vere disturbance of auditory-verbal memory, one of the most
essential mechanisms of which was an abnormally strong re-
troactive inhibition of elements of speech presented aloud.
The patient could easily repeat a word presented t o him and
reproduce it after a pause of 15 seconds o r a minute. He be-
gan to experience difficulty in reproducing the given word after
a pause of 30-60 seconds only when he w a s tired, and some-
times the required reproduction w a s replaced by perseverative
reproduction.
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However, a distinct disturbance became evident only when he

was requested to reproduce s e r i e s of two, three, o r five pho-
nemes or words. As a rule, the patient repeated the last word
of the series, and the preceding words appeared to be retro-
actively inhibited. This phenomenon persisted with many repe -
titions of the s e r i e s , and w a s not altered by the insistent de-
mand t o repeat the words in the same order in which they were
presented.
Here are a few examples of this defect:

table-clock house -night closet -forest

(1) night. ..
nothing! (1) clock. ..
nothing! forest.. .closet
(2) night. ..
nothing! (2) clock. ..
nothing!
(3) night. ..
nothing! (3) clock. ..
nothing!

table -color brother-house shadow-e ye-knife

.
color. .table house. ..brother knife...eye. ..
key -mu8 hroom- moss knock-knif e-sand-bank
moss. ..
nothing! knock. ..
The tendency to reproduce the last word first (the "recency"
factor of American authors) was retained by the patient even
when the requests were repeated.
Examples :
stupid boy I want to go home The dog barks
(1) boy.. . (1)home. ..nothing barks. ..
the dog
(2) boy. .. nothing (2) home. ..nothing
 2 60 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

Only sometimes, when the reproduction was separated from

the presented series by a 15-30-second pause, did the tendency
to reproduce the last element of the series first decrease, and
sometimes the elements in the series were reproduced in the
correct sequence.
It is characteristic that this defect appeared only in auditory-
verbal memory and was not evident in either the reproduction
of a visually presented series of figures (sketched from mem-
ory) or in the reproduction of visually presented series of
movements.
Thus we had isolated a disturbance of auditory-verbal mem-
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ory resulting from a lesion of the left temporal region of the

brain.
This gives rise to the question of whether the described ab-
normally strong retroactive inhibition remains if we retain the
verbal nature of the material to be memorized but alter the
participation of visual and motor components.
To answer this question we conducted two series of experi-
ments. In one we presented the patient with an appropriate s e -
ries of words in written form and asked him to reproduce it in
writing (writing-writing series). In the other series, we pre-
sented the patient, as before, with a series of words orally, but
asked him to reproduce it in written form (oral-writing series).
The results of these series were quite unequivocal. It was
sufficient to pass to the "writing-writing" series for the num-
ber of elements reproduced to rise sharply, and the patient
was, as a rule, capable of reproducing two or three words.
More interesting was the fact that the tendency t o reproduce
the last word of a series first disappeared, and the series be-
gan to be reproduced in the correct sequence.
Examples:

beetle -closet onion-mouse -brother-snow

beetle-closet -
onion mouse -brother -snow
nose-flag-table shadow -cat -bell-floor -goose
nose -flag -table ..
shadow. cat. . .
cat -bell -floor ball-eye -key-poppy -closet
cat -bell POPPY, key. * * POPPY. ' *
 SPRING-SUMMER 1970 26 1

Most important, however, was the result obtained in the last

of the trials, in which the series of words to be memorized
w a s presented orally as before but the patient was to reproduce
it in writing (oral-writing series). It would seem that the r e -
tention of the auditory character of the information at the "in-
put" would determine the subsequent process and not alter the
pathological features of retroactive inhibition of the reproduced
series. Actually, the results were the reverse: mere recording
of the series when reproduced altered the mechanism of its
retention and partially relieved the abnormally strong retro-
active inhibition that had been observed in the first s e r i e s of
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experiments. In this series of experiments, the patient, in the

majority of cases, began to reproduce the series in the correct
order. Reproduction began with the last member of the series
only in isolated cases (because of fatigue, o r when an excessive
series of five members was presented).
Examples :

closet-forest brother-house smoke-beetle

closet -f orest brother -house beetle. ..
key-mushroom-moss horse -brother -step
key-mushroom-moss horse-brother

shadow-eye -knife ball-light-table-brother -step

eye. .. brother. .. table. .. ball

bread-brother-bell-moss -step
step-moss -bread-

These findings signify that mere written reproduction of an

orally presented series causes an appreciable rearrangement
of memory mechanisms through the elimination of the abnor-
mally strong retroactive inhibition that had completely domi-
nated oral reproduction of a verbally presented series.
Fig. 1 presents the collective results of the experiments.
It is easy to see that the oral reproduction of orally pre-
sented series of individual sounds (phonemes) or words is
 262 SOVIET PSYCHOLOGY

A B

Fig. 1. Number of elements in the series.

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Reproduction of a series of words presented

orally to patient B1. under different condi-
tions: broken line - s e r i e s with repetition
of three elements; continuous line -
series
with repetition of five elements; A oral -
presentation - oral reproduction; B -
oral
presentation - written reproduction

completely determined by the abnormally strong retroactive

inhibition and the predominance of a tendency to reproduce the
last, most recent words (recency factor); that a transition to
written reproduction of a series presented in writing complete-
ly eliminates this tendency and switches the subject over to
reproduction of the series in the appropriate order, although
the last words in the series clearly a r e affected; and that mere
written reproduction of an orally presented series leads to
compromised results with typical predominance of the "end
factor'! in the memorization of a series consisting of more
than the maximal number of words for the patient.
The findings described show how certain regular patterns in
the memory process, which depend on modality and are ob-
scured under normal conditions, can appear clearly in a neuro-
psychological analysis of changes in memory as a result of
local brain lesions.
 SPRING-SUMMER 1970 263

Summarv

The dependence of memory on the participation of a modality

(hearing, vision) in the retention and reproduction of a p r e -
sented s e r i e s becomes clearly evident in a neuropsychological
analysis of memory in patients with local brain lesions, where-
as under normal conditions it is obscured.
Findings are presented that show that a lesion of the left
temporal region may cause serious disturbance of auditory-
verbal memory as a result of abnormally strong retroactive
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inhibition and that these symptoms subside in the case of writ-

ten reproduction of a s e r i e s presented in writing, o r even in
the case of m e r e written reproduction of an orally presented
series.

References

1. Luriya, A. R. Mozg cheloveka i psikhicheskie protzessy.

Izd-vo MGU, 1962.
2. Luriya, A. R., & Rappoport, M. Yu. Regional'naya simp-
tomatika narusheniy vysshikh korkovykh funktsiy posle vnu-
trimozgovykh opukholey levoy visochnoy doli. Vop. Neyrokhir.,
1962, No. 4.
3. Klimkovskiy, M., Luriya, A. R., & Sokolov, E. N. Ney-
rodinamic heskiy analiz sluk ho -r echevoy pamyati . Zh. Vyssh.
Nerv. Deyat. Pavlov, 1967, 17.
4. Klimkovskiy, M. Narushenie slukho-rechevoy pamyati
p r i porazheniyakh levoy visochnoy doli. Candidate's disserta-
tion. Moscow, 1966,