Memory Organisation

Memory is central to common sense behaviour and also the basis for learning.

Human memory is still not fully understood however psychologists have proposed several ideas:

• Short term memory (STM) -- only a few items at a time can be held here. Perceptual information stored directly here.
• Long term memory (LTM) -- capacity for storage is very large and fairly permanent.

LTM is often divided up further:

• Episodic memory -- contains information about personal experiences.
• Semantic memory -- general facts with no personal meaning. E.g. Birds fly. Useful in natural language understanding.

In terms of AI research work started by Quillian on semantic memory led to semantic networks and frames and other slot and filler structures.

Work on episodic memory grew out of scripts.

Production systems are an example of STN-LTM computer models.