Which components does the Working Memory Model include?

• A. Central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.
• B. A single short-term store and a central executive.
• C. Visual cache and inner scribe only.
• D. Long-term memory integrated with perception.

Answer: (A)

The key idea here is how Working Memory is structured to handle different kinds of information under active control. At the center is the central executive, the attentional system that directs focus, switches tasks, and coordinates processing. Supporting it are separate storage systems for different kinds of information: the phonological loop, which deals with spoken language by storing sound-based information and refreshing it through subvocal rehearsal; and the visuospatial sketchpad, which handles visual and spatial information and is composed of a visual cache for what things look like and an inner scribe for where things are and movement in space. A later addition, the episodic buffer, serves as a multimodal integrator that binds information from the other systems into coherent events and links to long-term memory. So, the complete set includes the central executive, the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the episodic buffer. That’s why this option is the best fit: it names all four components. Other choices fall short because they omit one or more of these parts or misrepresent how information is stored and integrated in working memory (for example, suggesting there’s only a single short-term store, or that only parts of the visuospatial sketchpad exist, or that long-term memory is a built-in component of the model).