Holographic Reduced Representations: Convolution Algebra for Compositional Distributed Representations

A solution to the problem of representing compositional structure using distributed representations is described. The method uses circular convolution to associate items, which are represented by vectors. Arbitrary variable bindings, short sequences of various lengths, frames, and reduced representations can be compressed into a xed width vector. These representations are items in their own right, and can be used in constructing compositional structures. The noisy reconstructions given by convolution memories can be cleaned up by using a separate associative memory that has good reconstructive properties.