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Retrieval and Organizational Strategies in Conceptual Memory: A Computer Model
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References
1985
Year
Memory RetrievalConcept FormationEngineeringExploratory SearchPsycholinguisticsCognitionConceptual Knowledge AcquisitionUpdating SystemSocial SciencesComputer MemoryNatural Language ProcessingInformation RetrievalComputational LinguisticsConceptual MemoryManagementCognitive DevelopmentMemoryPast EventsRetrieval TechniqueCognitive SciencePersonal Information ManagementKnowledge RetrievalMemory ConsolidationComputer ScienceExperimental PsychologySocial CognitionAssociative Memory (Psychology)Human-computer InteractionKnowledge ManagementLinguisticsInteractive Information Retrieval
People effortlessly recall past events and episodes in their lives many times in a normal day. The study aims to construct a computer memory that can recall past events like humans and presents a theory and program, CYRUS, to achieve this. The authors design a memory organization with updating and retrieval processes, implemented in the CYRUS program, which stores and integrates episodes and uses reconstructive instantiation and search strategies to retrieve them. CYRUS successfully answers English questions about stored events, demonstrating that its algorithms, derived from human memory search patterns, support effective retrieval.
Abstract : People effortlessly recall past events and episodes in their lives many times in the course of a normal day. A reasonable goal in the design of computer programs is to construct a memory with that same capability. To facilitate human-like retrieval of events from a computer memory, we must first specify a reasonable memory organization. We must then design updating and retrieval processes to build up and access that information. This thesis will present such a theory, and will describe a computer program called CYRUS which implements that theory. CYRUS (Computerized Yale Retrieval and Updating System) stores and retrieves episodes in the lives of Secretaries of State Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie. When new events are added to its memory, CYRUS integrates them into memory along with the events it already knows about. CYRUS can then answer questions posed to it in English about the events it stores. The algorithms and memory organization used in CYRUS have been developed by examining the way people answer questions requiring extensive memory search. Its reconstructive processes include instantiation strategies, which construct and elaborate on contexts for search, and search strategies, which direct construction.