Verbal memory

Verbal memory, in cognitive psychology, is memory of words and other abstractions involving language. A variety of tests is used to gauge verbal memory, including learning lists or pairs of words, or recalling a story after it has been told. Verbal memory deals with memory of spoken information.^[1]

Verbal encoding

Verbal encoding is the interpretation of verbal stimuli and appears to be strongly left-lateralized in the medial temporal lobe of the human brain; however, its functional neuroanatomy can vary between individuals.^[2]

Verbal recall

Verbal recall is the recollection of verbal information. Although left-lateralization is typically associated with language, studies suggest that symmetrical bi-lateralization of language in the brain is advantageous to verbal recall.^[3]

Mechanism

Verbal memory and verbal working memory are thought to depend on reverberating neural activity that maintains word representations in the absence of external input.^[4] This reverberation is facilitated by dense cortico-cortical connections in the perisylvian region, particularly the arcuate fasciculus, which is more developed in humans than in non-human primates.^[5] Brain-constrained neural network models suggest that such connectivity supports sustained activity patterns and thereby enables robust verbal working memory, a prerequisite for human vocabulary building.^[6]

See also

• Semantic memory
• Declarative memory
• Sensory memory
• Visual memory
• Spatial memory