Subjective ordering, short-term memory, and the frontal lobes

Four tasks relying on short-term retention, i.e. digit span, missing scan, randomization span, and pointing span were presented to patients with frontal-lobe lesions and normal controls. Digit span was considered a measure of passive short-term memory, the other three tasks additionally reflect comp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 1990, Vol.28 (1), p.95-98
Main Authors: Wiegersma, Sjoerd, van der Scheer, Elly, Hijman, Ron
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Brain Neoplasms - physiopathology
Brain Neoplasms - surgery
Dominance, Cerebral - physiology
Female
Frontal Lobe - physiopathology
Frontal Lobe - surgery
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Mental Recall - physiology
Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology
Postoperative Complications - physiopathology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Psychosurgery
Serial Learning - physiology
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Summary:Four tasks relying on short-term retention, i.e. digit span, missing scan, randomization span, and pointing span were presented to patients with frontal-lobe lesions and normal controls. Digit span was considered a measure of passive short-term memory, the other three tasks additionally reflect comparison processes, and two of these, the randomization and pointing spans, also measure active ordering by the subject. The results confirmed Petrides and Milner's ( Neuropsychologia 20, 249–262, 1982) hypothesis that frontal-lobe patients are typically deficient in subject-ordered tasks. It is also suggested that they are deficient in a spontaneous generation, rather than comparison, component of subjective ordering.
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/0028-3932(90)90089-7