always occur in direct succession and not distributed over the entire test sequence it is sufficient to test whether the last cr 1 defect addresses have the same word line address if this is the case no new defect address with an identical word line address must be accepted any longer in the memory unit 2 the size of the memory unit 2 is consequently restricted to the order of magnitude of cr 1 defect addresses in a functional test of this type consequently a maximum of the last cr 1 defect addresses are stored in one of the memory devices 4 or 5 of the preprocessing device 3 for example the address part adr 2 of a defect address by which the respective word line wl is accessed word line address is respectively stored in the register units 6 of the memory device 4 the content of the respective register units 6 i e the last cr word line addresses plus the current word line address are checked by means of the comparison device 7 to ascertain whether they coincide if these word line addresses coincide no new defect address with this word line address must be accepted any longer.