Some ideas on semantic memory in automatic learning of heuristics

This paper is concerned with the problem of computer semantic memory, i. e. with the problem of representing general knowledge about, a given world. The sematic memory issue is raised in the context of machiue learning of heuristics and the connection with the problem of machine representation of knowledge is emphasized. The guidelines for the implementation of a sematic memory are presented and attention is given to the design of the processes for storing and retrieving information. The problem of knowledge representation is tackled in its, general form, so that the proposed semantic memory may be of interest also in other fields, like Natural Lauguage Understanding, Question Answering, Theorem Proving. The research described in this paper was carried out wile the author was visiting, the Department of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa. U. S. A. The research has been supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Office of the U. S. Secretary of Defense (F 44620-70-C-0107), monitored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Reseach, and in part by the National Research Council Istituto di Elaborazione dell'informazione, Pisa Italy.