Abstract: Disclosed is a method and device for addressing catastrophic forgetting in artificial neural network learning by applying metaplasticity rules of the biological brain, which may be configured to assign different flexibility values to a plurality of synapses of an artificial neural network, respectively; and to store information on at least one task through the synapses while performing learning for the at least one task using the artificial neural network. The present disclosure may adjust weights of the synapses according to the flexibility values assigned to the synapses, respectively, while performing learning for each task, and may store information on the task based on the weights through the synapses.