Discuss the working memory model

The working memory model was proposed by Baddeley & Hitch as an alternative to the multi-store model of memory. It has been developed to directly challenge the concept of a single unitary store for short-term memory. It is divided into four components, being the central executive, phonological loop ( which includes the two sub components , auditory and articiulatory store) episodic buffer and the visuo spatial sketch pad.
The most important component is the central executive; it is involved in problem solving/decision-making. It also controls attention and plays a major role in planning and synthesizing information. It is flexible and can process information from any modality which makes it modality free, although it does have a limited storage capacity and so can attend to a limited number if things at one time. Lastly the CE is responsible for monitoring the slave systems ( the other components) and directing which slave system to send information to.
Another component of the working memory model is the phonological loop, it stores a limited number of speech-based sounds for brief periods. It is thought to consist of two components - the auditory store (inner ear)which is modality specific as it receives it’s inputs from the ear and long term memory, it allows acoustically coded items to be stored for a brief period. The articulatory store (the inner voice) allows repetition of the material stored in the phonological store. This slave system is also modality specific, and receives information from LTM.
One more componen is the visuo-spatial sketch pad, it stores visual and spatial information and can be thought of as an inner eye, it is responsible to visualize mental images. Like the phonological loop, it has limited capacity but the limits of the two systems are independent, which means that they can both work at the same