Which part of memory is used to temporarily hold and manipulate visual and spatial information?

The correct answer is the visuospatial sketchpad, which is a component of Baddeley and Hitch's model of working memory. This part of memory specifically focuses on temporarily holding and manipulating information related to visual and spatial aspects. It allows individuals to visualize and organize spatial information, such as navigating through a space or remembering the layout of a room.

For example, when you need to find your way around a new environment or visualize the arrangement of objects in a room, the visuospatial sketchpad is actively engaged in processing that information. This aspect of memory is essential for tasks that require spatial reasoning, imagery, and the understanding of visual relationships.

The central executive serves a different purpose by overseeing and coordinating the activities of the subsystems, including the visuospatial sketchpad, but does not specifically hold visual and spatial information itself. The phonological loop deals with verbal and auditory information, focusing on language processing. The episodic buffer integrates information from different modalities but does not specifically target visual and spatial information in the same way as the visuospatial sketchpad.