Today, our metaphors for memory have been refined. We no longer think of memory as a wax tablet but as a reconstructive process, whereby experiences are reassembled from their constituent parts. And instead of a simple association between stimuli and behavioural responses, the relationship between memories and action is variable, conditioned on context and priorities. A simple article of memorised knowledge, for example a memory of the layout of the London Underground, can be used to answer the question, “How do you get from Piccadilly Circus to Moorgate?” as well as the question, “What is directly adjacent to Moorgate, going north on the Northern Line?”. It all depends on the question; the contents of memory and their use can be separated. Another view holds that memories can be organised in order to perform computation. More like lego than wax, memories can be recombined depending on the problem at hand.

Source: https://deepmind.com/blog/article/differentiable-neural-computers