Individuals with left hemisphere damage, such as from a stroke, experience difficulty in speaking, a condition called aphasia. Testing short-term memory (STM) in these individuals is complicated by their verbal deficit because most memory tests require participants to verbally repeat digits or words. This study examined the pattern of verbal and spatial STM performance in aphasia as well as the impact of a nonverbal response mode such as pointing. Specifically, this study sought to investigate three questions:

1. Does left hemisphere damage impact both verbal and visual STM?
2. Is there a difference in verbal STM (digit and picture span tasks) scores with oral versus pointing responses?
3. How does STM performance relate to the profile of language impairment in aphasia, especially for comprehension, repetition, and word finding? Analysis of STM performance from 45 persons with a diagnosis of aphasia after a left hemisphere stroke and 12 age-matched healthy adults showed that persons with aphasia are impaired in all verbal STM tasks (digit and picture span tasks) irrespective of whether they used speech or pointing to indicate their responses. In contrast, spatial STM was preserved. Further, there was a strong correlation between STM and language impairment in aphasia.