1. A device for recognizing and responding to physical patterns, comprising: (a) transducer means for producing an input signal representing a physical pattern in an environment; (b) a plurality of feature detectors responsive to said input signal, each feature detector having weight means for storing a representation of a preferred feature, for producing a feature activity signal representing degrees to which each of said preferred features exists in said input signal, and for producing a feature description signal representing said preferred features; (c) classifier means responsive to said feature activity signal, for producing an output signal representing a system action corresponding to said input signal; (d) effector means responsive to said output signal, for committing an action in said environment; (e) memory means responsive to said input signal, for approximately storing a representation of said input signal, and for producing a retrieval signal representing previously stored input signals; (f) assigner means responsive to said input signal and to said retrieval signal and to said feature description signal, for producing a part mapping signal representing a mapping between a plurality of parts and at least one responsible feature detector, such that each part corresponds to a likely feature of said input signal and of said previously stored input signals; (g) updater means responsive to said part mapping signal, for modifying each of said responsible feature detectors so as to make its preferred feature more similar to its assigned part; whereby the modification of each of said responsible feature detectors is largely independent of the modifications of the other feature detectors; whereby said device can be effectively trained with fewer physical pattern examples than a device having correlated feature training.