Table 1.
Basic concepts used in memory models: definitions (see text for details) and examples of tasks used in clinical neuropsychology
| Definitions | Main tasks | |
|---|---|---|
| Working memory | ||
| Phonological loop | Responsible for storing and refreshing verbal information. | Forward verbal span |
| Visuospatial sketchpad | Involved in maintaining spatial and visual information | Forward visual span |
| Episodic buffer | Temporary storage system capable of integrating information from a variety of sources | Immediate prose recall |
| Integration task (Prabhakaran et al., 2000; Quinette, Guillery-Girard, Noël, et al., 2006) | ||
| Central executive | Supervises and coordinates the slave systems (includes executive functions) | Backward spans; dual tasks; Trail-making test (mental flexibility); N-back test (updating); Stroop (inhibition) (Miyake et al., 2000) |
| Long-term memory | ||
| Episodic memory* | Memory of personally experienced events, situated in the temporal-spatial context of their acquisition | Wechsler memory scale (Wechsler, 1997) |
| California Verbal Learning Test (Delis, Kramer, Kaplan, & Ober, 1987) | ||
| Selective reminding test(Grober & Buschke, 1987) | ||
| Rey figure (Rey, 1959) | ||
| Doors & People (Baddeley, Emslie, & Nimmo-Smith, 1994) | ||
| Associated with autonoetic consciousness | Remember/Know paradigm (Tulving, 1985; Gardiner, 1988): R responses | |
| Semantic memory | Memory of general facts of the world | Explicit tasks: Pyramids and Palm Trees test (Howard & Patterson, 1992) |
| Naming tasks; Verbal fluency tasks | ||
| Associated with noetic consciousness | Remember/Know paradigm (Tulving, 1985; Gardiner, 1988): K responses | |
| Implicit task: category exemplar test | ||
| Perceptual representation system | Subtends perceptual priming effect | Perceptual identification tasks (Lebreton et al., 2001) |
| Procedural memory | Allows skills to be acquired through training | Rotor test (perceptual-motor); Mirror reading (perceptual-verbal); Tower tasks (cognitive) (Beaunieux et al., 2006) |
*
Most of episodic memory tasks assess the accuracy, while the remember/known paradigm allows to evaluate the subjective experience.