K‐Lines: A theory of Memory

Marvin Minsky

Cognitive Science · 1980 · 199 citations · 10 references

Concepts

TL;DR

Memory theories posit that learning constructs a representation that is stored and later retrieved, raising questions about how information is represented, stored, retrieved, and used. This paper aims to address all these questions simultaneously. It introduces the K‑line, a construct created when an idea is to be remembered, which upon activation evokes a partial mental state resembling the original, comprising a subset of concurrent mental agencies. The K‑line framework yields insights into memory development, structure, physiology, and offers a basis for implementing framelike representations in distributed processors.

Abstract

Most theories of memory suggest that when we learn or memorize something, some drepresentation of that something is constructed, stored and later retrieved. This raises questions like: How is information represented? How is it stored? How is it retrieved? Then, how is it used? This paper tries to deal with all these at once. When you get an idea and want to “remember” it, you create a “K‐line” for it. When later activated, the K‐line induces a partial mental state resembling the one that created it. A “partial mental state” is a subset of those mental agencies operating at one moment. This view leads to many ideas about the development, structure and physiology of memory, and about how to implement framelike representations in a distributed processor.

References

10