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We propose that the many different forms of selective semantic impairment that have been reported over the past 20 years may be classified into three general classes: semantic-category selective, modality-of-input selective, and semantic-attribute selective. Particular patients may exhibit more than one form of selectivity, i.e. there can be doubly and perhaps even triply selective semantic impairments. We then describe a patient with a singly selective semantic impairment of a form not previously described: he was unable to access visual semantic attributes in semantic memory, whereas he could access semantic attributes relevant to other sensory modalities, and could also access non-perceptual semantic attributes. This pattern of results was independent both of modality of input and of semantic category of probed item. We infer from these data the existence of a semantic subsystem specific to the storage …