Final answer:
STM in Atkinson and Shiffrin's model acts as a brief storage space before information transitions to long-term storage or is discarded, whereas Baddeley and Hitch's Central Executive in the Working Memory Model is an overarching controller that manages specialized storage systems (phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer) for complex memory processes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is inquiring about the comparison between the Short-Term Memory (STM) in Atkinson and Shiffrin's Modal Model of Memory and the Central Executive in Baddeley and Hitch's Working Memory Model. STM in the Modal Model is where information is held briefly before it's either forgotten or stored in long-term memory. In contrast, the Central Executive in the Working Memory Model serves as a supervisory system that regulates the flow of information to and from specialized subsystems, such as the visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer. It also is crucial for transferring information into long-term memory. These subsystems in the Working Memory Model operate like opening different computer files to add information, with each file representing different types of memory storage.
Beyond mere storage, the Central Executive is responsible for attention control, decision-making, and updating and manipulating stored information, which is not explicitly detailed in Atkinson and Shiffrin's model. For example, the phonological loop handles auditory information, the visuospatial sketchpad processes visual and spatial information, and the episodic buffer integrates information from these subsystems, as well as long-term memory, into a coherent sequence. These components reflect a more dynamic process of memory usage than that suggested by the simpler STM concept.