In this talk, I will review evidence that processes which maintain activation of semantic and phonological representations of single words during comprehension, repetition and production of speech also play a role in the maintenance of words in verbal short-term memory (STM). I will review evidence from aphasia that performance on immediate serial recall is influenced quantitatively and qualitatively by (1) type and severity of a word processing deficit and (2) stimulus factors and task demands in the measurement of span capacity. A model of the contribution of temporal aspects of word processing to verbal short-term memory will be discussed.