Episodic Buffer

The Episodic Buffer refers to a component of Baddeley and Hitch's Model of Working Memory. This model holds that the human memory functions as interactive system with a Central Executive function that coordinates the activities of three subordinate or "slave" systems. The episodic buffer is the third member of these slave systems and is theorized to integrate the other functions, known as the phonological loop (information heard) and visio-spatial sketchpad (information seen) with a sense of time, so that things occur in a continuing sequence, like a story from a book or movie. This theory is used to explain why memories can be experienced as a coordinated sequence of events rather than as discrete segments.