The document discusses associative memory, a content-addressable memory structure that relates input patterns to output patterns. It outlines two main types of associative memory: auto-associative, which retrieves similar stored patterns, and hetero-associative, which retrieves different patterns based on key-response pairs. The document also details various models and architectures for implementing associative memory, such as the linear associator, Hopfield model, and bi-directional associative memory (BAM).