Vector Symbolic Architectures: Constructions in the Brain

Simon D. LevyWashington & Lee University

Lexington, Virginia, USA

Ross GaylerBaycorp Advantage Value Solutions /

LaTrobe UniversityMelbourne, Australia

The Appeal of Connectionism(Rumelhart &

McClelland 1986)

WALK

WALKED

ROAR

ROARED

SPEAK

SPOKE

GO

WENT

ignores(mary, john)

Mary won’t give John the time of day.

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

X

john

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