What happens when Episodic Buffer bindings overwhelm capacity?

• A. Nothing, EB is unaffected
• B. EB can still bind unlimited items
• C. EB bindings can fail, leading to forgetting
• D. Only long-term memory is affected by the overload

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is that the Episodic Buffer has a limited capacity for binding different sources of information into a single, coherent episode. It acts as a temporary workspace that combines inputs from the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and long-term memory. When too many bindings are attempted at once, this workspace can’t maintain them all, so the bindings can fail. That means the integrated episode isn’t formed reliably, leading to forgetting or misbound details. The overload doesn’t simply spare long-term memory or leave EB untouched; it disrupts the binding process itself, causing some information to drop out or be recalled incorrectly.