Lateralized anterior and posterior lesions and performance on Digit Span and Russell's revision of the Wechsler...

Performance on the Russell (1975) revision of the Wechsler Memory Scale and the Digit Span subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale by subjects with lateralized anterior and posterior lesions was investigated. Ss were right-handed men whose brain lesions were identified on the basis of neurodiagnostic tests as being lateralized to either the left or right hemisphere and restricted to either the anterior or posterior side of the central sulcus. A normal comparison group was formed of Ss suspected of having neurological damage and referred for neuropsychological testing but who had normal neurodiagnostic examinations. It was predicted that both the laterality and caudality of lesions would affect memory task performance. This prediction was fully supported for the logical memory task and partially supported for the figural memory and digit span tasks.