Hominin Stone Flaking and the Emergence of ‘Top-down’ Design in Human Evolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-664
Author(s):  
Mark W. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Simple Algorithm ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Current View ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Daniel Dennett ◽  
Research Challenge ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
Recent Experimental Work

The philosopher Daniel Dennett argues that complex structures in the natural and cultural worlds emerge from two types of design. Bottom-up design involves the rote action of a simple algorithm in an environment constrained by physical laws. Top-down design involves deliberation and planning, and is unique to modern humans. Identifying the emergence of top-down design in the hominin lineage is an important research challenge, and the archaeological record of stone technology is our best evidence for it. A current view is that artefact types and flaking methods increased in complexity from 3.3 to c. 0.3 million years ago, reflecting improving capacities at spatial cognition and working memory, culminating in top-down design perhaps as early as 1.75 million years ago. Recent experimental work, however, has shown that a simple ‘remove flake’ algorithm constrained by the laws of fracture mechanics—a form of bottom-up design—can produce stone tool attributes thought to be evidence of top-down design. Here, these models are reviewed and critiqued in light of the new experimental evidence. A revised working memory-based model, focusing on the recursive aspects of stone flaking, is proposed.

scholarly journals F78. OVERCOMING A BOTTOM-UP ATTENTIONAL BIAS BY PROVIDING TOP-DOWN INFORMATION DURING WORKING MEMORY ENCODING IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S250-S250
Author(s):  
Catherine Barnes ◽  
Lara Rösler ◽  
Michael Schaum ◽  
Deliah Macht ◽  
Benjamin Peters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up

scholarly journals Impaired and Intact Aspects of Attentional Competition and Prioritization during Visual Working Memory Encoding in Schizophrenia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine V Barnes ◽  
Lara Roesler ◽  
Michael Schaum ◽  
Carmen Schiweck ◽  
Benjamin Peters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Detection Task ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Change Detection Task ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Irrelevant Distractors

Objective: People with schizophrenia (PSZ) are impaired in the attentional prioritization of non-salient but relevant stimuli over salient but irrelevant distractors during visual working memory (VWM) encoding. Conversely, the guidance of top-down attention by external predictive cues is intact. Yet, it is unknown whether this preserved ability can help PSZ overcome impaired attentional prioritization in the presence of salient distractors. Methods: We employed a visuospatial change-detection task using four Gabor Patches with differing orientations in 69 PSZ and 74 healthy controls (HCS). Two patches flickered to reflect saliency and either a predictive or a non-predictive cue was displayed resulting in four conditions. Results: Across all conditions, PSZ stored significantly less information in VWM than HCS (all p < 0.001). With a non-predictive cue, PSZ stored significantly more salient than non-salient information (t140 = 5.66, p < 0.001, dt = 0.5). With a predictive cue, PSZ stored significantly more non-salient information (t140 = 5.70, p < 0.001, dt = 0.5). Conclusion: Our findings support a bottom-up bias in schizophrenia with performance significantly better for visually salient information in the absence of a predictive cue. These results indicate that bottom-up attentional prioritization is disrupted in schizophrenia, but the top-down utilization of cues is intact. We conclude that additional top-down information significantly improves performance in PSZ when non-salient visual information needs to be encoded in working memory.

Bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues concurrently determine state in visual working memory

2020 ◽  
pp. 174702182096626
Author(s):  
Lingxia Fan ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Liuting Diao ◽  
Mengsi Xu ◽  
Ruiyang Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Salient Feature ◽  
Active State ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Perceptual Salience

Recent studies have demonstrated that in visual working memory (VWM), only items in an active state can guide attention. Further evidence has revealed that items with higher perceptual salience or items prioritised by a valid retro-cue in VWM tend to be in an active state. However, it is unclear which factor (perceptual salience or retro-cues) is more important for influencing the item state in VWM or whether the factors can act concurrently. Experiment 1 examined the role of perceptual salience by asking participants to hold two features with relatively different perceptual salience (colour vs. shape) in VWM while completing a visual search task. Guidance effects were found when either colour or both colour and shape in VWM matched one of the search distractors but not when shape matched. This demonstrated that the more salient feature in VWM can actively guide attention, while the less salient feature cannot. However, when shape in VWM was cued to be more relevant (prioritised) in Experiment 2, we found guidance effects in both colour-match and shape-match conditions. That is, both more salient but non-cued colour and less salient but cued shape could be active in VWM, such that attentional selection was affected by the matching colour or shape in the visual search task. This suggests that bottom-up perceptual salience and top-down retro-cues can jointly determine the active state in VWM.

“Top-Down” or “Bottom-Up”

1998 ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
Francisco Flores
Keyword(s):  
Physical Theory ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Principle Theory

Wesley Salmon has suggested that the two leading views of scientific explanation, the “bottom-up” view and the “top-down” view, describe distinct types of explanation. In this paper, I focus on theoretical explanations in physics, i.e., explanations of physical laws. Using explanations of E=mc2, I argue that the distinction between bottom-up explanations (BUEs) and top-down explanations (BUEs) is best understood as a manifestation of a deeper distinction, found originally in Newton’s work, between two levels of theory. I use Einstein’s distinction between ‘principle’ and ‘constructive’ theories to argue that only lower level theories, i.e., ‘constructive’ theories, can yield BUEs. These explanations, furthermore, depend on higher level laws that receive only TDEs from a ‘principle’ theory. Thus, I conclude that Salmon’s challenge to characterize the relationship between the two types of explanation can be met only by recognizing the close relationship between types of theoretical explanation and the structure of physical theory.

scholarly journals Individual differences in working memory capacity and visual search: The roles of top-down and bottom-up processing

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 840-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenith V. Sobel ◽  
Matthew P. Gerrie ◽  
Bradley J. Poole ◽  
Michael J. Kane
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up

scholarly journals A Canonical Laminar Neocortical Circuit Whose Bottom-Up, Horizontal, and Top-Down Pathways Control Attention, Learning, and Prediction

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Grossberg
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Human Cerebral Cortex ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
3D Vision

All perceptual and cognitive circuits in the human cerebral cortex are organized into layers. Specializations of a canonical laminar network of bottom-up, horizontal, and top-down pathways carry out multiple kinds of biological intelligence across different neocortical areas. This article describes what this canonical network is and notes that it can support processes as different as 3D vision and figure-ground perception; attentive category learning and decision-making; speech perception; and cognitive working memory (WM), planning, and prediction. These processes take place within and between multiple parallel cortical streams that obey computationally complementary laws. The interstream interactions that are needed to overcome these complementary deficiencies mix cell properties so thoroughly that some authors have noted the difficulty of determining what exactly constitutes a cortical stream and the differences between streams. The models summarized herein explain how these complementary properties arise, and how their interstream interactions overcome their computational deficiencies to support effective goal-oriented behaviors.

scholarly journals S160. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN BOTTOM-UP AND TOP-DOWN ATTENTION DURING WORKING MEMORY ENCODING: EVALUATION OF AN FMRI PARADIGM FOR THE STUDY OF COGNITIVE DYSFUNCTION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S387-S388
Author(s):  
Mishal Qubad ◽  
Catherine Barnes ◽  
Lara Rösler ◽  
Michael Schaum ◽  
Benjamin Peters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Dysfunction ◽  
Memory Encoding ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up

scholarly journals Massive Effects of Saliency on Information Processing in Visual Working Memory

2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762097578
Author(s):  
Martin Constant ◽  
Heinrich R. Liesefeld
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Computational Model ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Visual Cognition ◽  
Weighted Sum ◽  
Direct Control ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up

Limitations in the ability to temporarily represent information in visual working memory (VWM) are crucial for visual cognition. Whether VWM processing is dependent on an object’s saliency (i.e., how much it stands out) has been neglected in VWM research. Therefore, we developed a novel VWM task that allows direct control over saliency. In three experiments with this task (on 10, 31, and 60 adults, respectively), we consistently found that VWM performance is strongly and parametrically influenced by saliency and that both an object’s relative saliency (compared with concurrently presented objects) and absolute saliency influence VWM processing. We also demonstrated that this effect is indeed due to bottom-up saliency rather than differential fit between each object and the top-down attentional template. A simple computational model assuming that VWM performance is determined by the weighted sum of absolute and relative saliency accounts well for the observed data patterns.

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