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Vector Symbolic Architectures:
Constructions in the Brain
Simon D. Levy
Washington & Lee University
Lexington, Virginia, USA
Ross Gayler
Baycorp Advantage Value Solutions /
LaTrobe University
Melbourne, Australia
The Appeal of
Connectionism
(Rumelhart &
McClelland 1986)
WALKED
WALK
ROARED
ROAR
SPOKE
SPEAK
WENT
GO
Mary won’t give John the time of day.
ignores(mary, john)
Language Isn’t
(Just)
Association:
Jackendoff’s
Four Challenges
for Cognitive
Neuroscience
Challenge I: The Binding Problem
+
?
?
?
?
Solution? Local Representations
Local Representations
Challenge II: The Problem of Two
?
Challenge III: The Problem of
Variables
Challenge IV: Working Memory vs.
Long-Term Memory
ignores(X, Y)
X won’t give Y the time of day.
Vector Symbolic
Architectures
(Plate 1991;
Kanerva 1994;
Gayler 1998)
Binding
Binding
Bundling
+
=
Unbinding (query)
Reduction
Composition /
Recursion
Variables
john
X
Conclusions / Future
Work
• VSAs address Jackendoff’s first three
challenges
• Can be implemented as spiking neurons
(Eliasmith 2004)
• Remaining challenge: constructions
(long-term memory) to map from
conceptual structure (working memory)
to symbol sequences