Can Spurious States Be Useful?

Michel e C eccarelli Isti t uto di Ri cerca sui Sist emi In form atici Perelleli, IR SIP-CNR 80125 Nap oli, It aly Ab stract. Additive automata are analyzed and used as associative memories. Th eir storage capacity is comput ed as well as the attrac tion basin of each memorized pattern. We show how such systems can be used when the patterns to be memorized have a subset of relevant features; "spurious states" become meaningful as carriers of additional information, and storage capacity is thereby increased.