Associative Memory, Content Addressing, and Associative Recall

Abstract

The subject area of this book consists of various principles, methods, and devices of computer technology which are often grouped under the heading associative memory. A word of caution at this point will be necessary: the field of all phenomena related to associative memory is probably much wider than that ever covered in computer and information sciences. There is no other original model for associative memory than in human memory and thinking; unfortunately and surprisingly the experimental results do not yet allow us to deduce what the detailed memory mechanism thereby applied is. Only indirect evidence is available [1.1]. Similarly, while research in the artificial intelligence techniques claims to deal with correct reasoning and problem-solving, this does not necessarily imply that the real biological information processes should resemble even the best artificial ones. In order that a physical or abstract system could be named “associative memory”, one should stipulate at least that its function comply with the phenomenological features of human memory expressed in the Classical Laws of Association; we shall revert to them a bit later on in Sect. 1.4.1.