Varieties of working memory as seen in biology and in connectionist/control architectures

Biological and computational concepts that underlie the nature working memory are briefly reviewed. The conceptualization of working memory has changed dramatically in the last 30 years. Current biological work has monitored several aspects of memory, including activation decay, sustained activation, long-term connection change, and differential structures for episodic (hippocampal formation) and procedural learning. Current connectionist modeling has identified factors including multiple-region-based processing, control processing as well as data storage, tradeoffs between fast- and slow-connection-change learning effects, and the speeding of acquisition via multiple levels of learning. The need to relate the biological, behavioral, and computational constraints into models of working memory is discussed. Finally, conceptualizations of working memory must acknowledge the need for human learning systems to be robust enough to operate in a dynamic world.

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