Digit Span in Individuals with Aphasia and Right Hemisphere Damage

Although there is evidence that individuals with aphasia (IWA) have a reduced working memory capacity, there is disagreement amongst researchers as to the most appropriate measure of working memory in this population. This study explores performance on forward and backward digit span tasks in IWA and individuals with right brain damage (RBD). Findings indicate IWA perform worse on forward digit span than do RBD, however, there is no difference in performance between the two groups on the backward digit span task. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed