Enhanced neural network architectures that enable the determination and employment of association-based or attention-based “interrelatedness” of various portions of the input data are provided. A method of employing an architecture includes receiving a first input data element, a second input element, and a third input element. A first interrelated metric that indicates a degree of interrelatedness between the first input data element and the second input data element is determined. A second interrelated metric is determined. The second interrelated metric indicates a degree of interrelatedness between the first input data element and the third input data element. An interrelated vector is generated based on the first interrelated metric and the second interrelated metric. The neural network is employed to generate an output vector that corresponds to the first input vector and is based on a combination of the first input vector and the interrelated vector.