ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an integrative view of working memory as a system for constructing, maintaining and transforming transient representations of internal and external states of the subject and the world. These working memory representations are transient mental models integrating elements provided by the peripheral sensory systems and elements retrieved from declarative long-term memory. Their integrative and heterogeneous nature make them akin to the representations held in the episodic buffer described by Baddeley. Accordingly, several neuroscientific studies show that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) maintains working memory representations in an active state through neuroscientific studies with posterior cortical areas sustaining the peripheral buffers. A simple response selection associated with the location of a stimulus on screen that does not require any intermediary result compete with concurrent maintenance of information within the episodic buffer. This suggests a central representational role for the episodic buffer and the executive loop in for the imaginal module postulated by ACT-R.
