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.

Managing records and archives in a Hong Kong school: a case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric C.K. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Record Management ◽  
Records Management ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This study aims to explore the principles and practices for managing records with the lens of functional analysis and knowledge management by using a case study that focuses on the experience of implementing records management at a public high school in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach A single case study is chosen as the research method for this paper. A series of qualitative interviews and documentary analysis were used to collect and triangulate the qualitative data. Findings The results show that the case school adopted a hybrid top-down and bottom-up approach to record management, facilitate decision-making and manage knowledge. The school adopted the taxonomy provided by the quality assurance framework as the functional classification in a digital archive in the records management system. Practical implications This study provides a set of taxonomy and a hybrid top-down and bottom-up approach to schools for ensuring that accurate information of all school activities is kept and can facilitate an effective and evidence-based, decision-making process. Social implications Identifying taxonomy and management practices for effective documentation in public schools can support planning, assist with organising the continuity of improvement plans and increase reporting and accountability to society. Originality/value This study offers a taxonomy and management approach to the literature of records management and the practices for promoting and improving records management in school.

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

Top Down or Bottom Up? A Study of Grassroots NGOs’ Approach

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biswambhar Panda
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Advocacy Activity ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Local Decision Making ◽  
Government Authority

NGOs deploy multiple approaches to achieve their objectives. These may broadly be classified as bottom up and top down. While a bottom-up approach emphasises local decision making, community participation and grassroots mobilisation/movements, the top-down approach focuses on lobbying and bargaining with the decision-making authorities such as government agencies, building up of pressures through various campaign mechanisms, advocacy activities, etc. This article draws insights from the literature and begins with a discussion on approaches undertaken by grassroots NGOs to meet their objectives. At the outset, the article ponders over a set of questions such as whether grassroots NGOs essentially follow a bottom-up approach. If so, why? Do they also intend to establish rapport with the state officials and thereby have say in the decision-making process? If so, how do they pursue it? This article, however, operationalises the bottom-up approach in terms of an array of indicators such as awareness building efforts of NGOs, people's participation in different phases of projects, and people's involvement in creating people's institutions. Similarly, it defines top-down approach on the basis of indicators such as NGOs’ participation in advocacy activity, obtaining support from government authority and obtaining favourable court verdicts. Despite the rhetoric, this article conclusively finds that no grassroots NGO practices either a bottom-up or top-down approach exclusively.

Modelling an ongoing design process utilizing top-down and bottom-up design strategies

2008 ◽  
Vol 223 (5) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Fathianathan ◽  
J H Panchal
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Design Process ◽  
New Products ◽  
Dynamic Decision Making ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Computational Environment ◽  
Successful Design ◽  
Product Design Process

The product design process plays a central role in ensuring that new products are realized with improved quality, in a short lead-time and with costs kept to a minimum. It is identified that making decisions dynamically on how the design process should proceed is not trivial. A computational environment that aids dynamic decision making on the design process would be useful in ensuring successful design of new products. A key component of analysing and making decisions on the progression of the design process is a model that captures an ongoing design process. In this paper, an approach to modelling an ongoing design process is proposed based on the use of design nodes. The approach allows an ongoing design process to be modelled that facilitates dynamic decision making on how the design process should progress and accounts for the state of the design problem. The approach allows top-down and bottom-up design strategies to be modelled.

scholarly journals Subjective Importance of a Common Feature Decides Its Consideration in Multi-attribute Decision-making

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziyi Wang ◽  
Guibing He
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Shared Information ◽  
Multi Attribute Decision Making ◽  
The Common ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Subjective Importance

One of the interesting research questions in multi-attribute decision-making is what affects the consideration of shared information (i.e., common features) between two alternatives. Previous studies have suggested two approaches (bottom-up and top-down) in finding what characteristics of common features affect their consideration. Two bottom-up factors (salience and interdependence) were found, but no top-down factors were discovered. In the current study, we followed the top-down approach and investigated how subjective importance (SI) of a common feature affects its consideration. In two studies, we consistently found that, on both the general and individual level, the level of consideration increased with the SI of the common feature. This result provided a new explanation for the effect of common feature consideration and its individual difference; it also provided insights in explaining the underlying process of multi-attribute decision making.

scholarly journals It Depends…Different Direct Democratic Instruments and Equality in Europe from 1990 to 2015

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Geißel ◽  
Anna Krämling ◽  
Lars Paulus
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Actual Output ◽  
Cross National

Despite the popularity of direct democracy in recent decades, research on the actual output effects of popular decision-making is rare. This is especially true with regard to equality, where there are at least three major research gaps: 1) a lack of cross-national analyses; 2) insufficient investigation of the differential effects of different direct democratic instruments on equality; and 3) a failure to distinguish between different aspects of equality, i.e., socioeconomic, legal and political equality. This article takes a first step to tackle these shortcomings by looking at all national referenda in European democracies between 1990 and 2015, differentiating between mandatory, bottom-up and top-down referenda. We find that a large majority of successful direct democratic bills—regardless of which instrument is employed—are not related to equality issues. Of the remaining ones, there are generally more successful pro-equality bills than contra-equality ones, but the differences are rather marginal. Mandatory referenda tend to produce pro-equality outputs, but no clear patterns emerge for bottom-up and top-down referenda. Our results offer interesting, preliminary insights to the current debate on direct democracy, pointing to the conclusion that popular decision-making via any type of direct democratic instrument is neither curse nor blessing with regard to equality. Instead, it is necessary to look at other factors such as context conditions or possible indirect effects in order to get a clearer picture of the impacts of direct democracy on equality.

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