---
title: "Holographic Reduced Representations: Convolution Algebra for Compositional Distributed Representations"
authors:
  - "Tony Plate"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1991/5"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1991/0005.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Twelfth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1991
pages: "30-34"
track: "Architectures & Languages"
keywords:
---

# Holographic Reduced Representations: Convolution Algebra for Compositional Distributed Representations

Tony Plate

*Proceedings of the Twelfth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 30-34.

## Abstract

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 fixed 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.