Verbal tagging can impair memory of object location: Evidence from aphasia

The impact of damage to different regions and functional systems of the brain on visual working memory (WM) is far from understood. Here we examined how impaired object naming due to brain damage affects object identity and location information in working memory. Ten first-event stroke patients with aphasia performed a “delayed estimation” task that examines memory of object location separately from memory of object identity, using a continuous reporting scale. Following a delay of 4 s, objects that could not be named by the aphasic patients were localized more precisely than objects that could be named. The results are interpreted with reference to classic models separating phonological from visuospatial working memory, and with reference to the “verbal overshadowing” effect that is typically associated with long-term memory.