Biological networks are capable of gradual learning based on observing a large number of exemplars over time as well as of rapidly memorizing specific events as a result of a single exposure. The focus of research in neural networks has been on gradual learning, and the modeling of one-shot memorization has received relatively little attention. Nevertheless, the development of biologically plausible computational models of rapid memorization is of considerable value, since such models would enhance our understanding of the neural processes underlying episodic memory formation. A few researchers have attempted the computational modeling of rapid (one-shot) learning within a framework described variably as recruitment learning and vicinal algorithms. Here it is shown that recruitment learning and vicinal algorithms can be grounded in the biological phenomena of long-term potentiation and longression. Toward this end, a computational abstraction of LTP and LTD is presented, and an “al...