ELD revisited: A second look at a neuropsychological impairment of working memory affecting retention of visuo-spatial material

Neuropsychological case studies involving putative impairment of the visuo-spatial sketch-pad component of Baddeley’s (1986) working memory model have been uncommon, with our own investigation of case ELD still being one of the most comprehensive to date (Hanley, Pearson & Young, 1990; Hanley, Young & Pearson, 1991). A recent theoretical review by Morey (2018) has offered a critique of ELD's data that has sought to cast doubt on our claim that she showed a pattern that reflects a problem with a functional component equivalent to the visuo-spatial sketch-pad. The importance of neuropsychological evidence to understanding visuospatial short-term memory has prompted us to revisit this case study, correct errors and misunderstandings in Morey's (2018) description of it, and provide some additional statistical information. Whilst acknowledging that cognitive neuropsychological studies will often depend on more than a single patient to offer definitive resolution of such an important issue, we show that there are compelling reasons to reject many of the claims that Morey (2018) made about ELD.