By Kayla Enochs
Studying has been something that a lot of students struggle with. Finding the perfect method is way more difficult than it should be. Every person is unique and not everyone can study the exact same way. So, this blog post is dedicated to giving students another studying style that they can try to their utility belt. In this blog, students will be able to learn about what the bottom-up and top-down processes are and how they can be used to study.
The Bottom-Up Process
The bottom-up process can be described as the partial skills that someone develops when they do not have the necessary declarative knowledge of a specific skill [1]. When someone is not given the specific instructions needed to perform a task, they might try to use prior skills or knowledge to learn said task. Research shows that people are able to complete complex tasks without being given any instructions or details and this shows that procedural skills do not only come from explicit knowledge [1]. This can also be used as a technique for studying exams that require specific knowledge. This could be used for exams that deal with using formulas like in Math or Science. When using this process to study, take a practice question you have not learned about yet, and try to solve it. When trying to solve this unknown problem, you will have to use your prior knowledge from past exams to solve it. This would also be helpful when studying for psychology exams that require you to create case studies for specific situations. In order to perform this, you would have to choose a specific situation, create a fake patient, and diagnose them. Doing this would require you to use information you have learned in the past to effectively create a fake patient that would effectively fit the fake scenario. Another aspect of the bottom-up process is segmentation. When performing the bottom-up approach to identify an image, you have to break the image up into different regions and identify the regions that correspond to an object[2]. This approach requires the brain to separate an unknown image into different parts to effectively identify what it is. This approach is another technique that could be used to study problems that require extensive steps in order to complete them, like science or math for example. To use this approach for studying you would have to break up the problem into different segments, or steps, that would each be solved separately. After solving the first you would then move on to the next and once you reached the end you would then analyze each step to solve the whole problem.
The Top-Down Process
The top-down process takes explicit knowledge and directions and procedural and implicit knowledge [3]. This process requires someone to been given specific directions or information and use them to complete the task or learn a new skill. This process is known as explicit learning, while bottom-up is known as implicit learning. This process can be used for studying when you read the necessary material you need to know for the exam. If you have access to a practice exam, you can read the first portion of the questions, so you know what you have to know to answer the questions, and then search for the answers within your textbook or notes. Reading the questions provides you with the explicit knowledge, or directions, of what you have to know for the questions. Using this explicit knowledge can aid in your search for the answers to the questions that you want to answer. Segmentation is also an aspect of the top-down process as well. Top-down segmentation relies on class-specific information when being used to identify an image [2]. When using this for study for an exam, you can separate the exam into different parts according to the different subjects in the exam. If it is a psychology exam about memory, then you can separate the information by the different theories and perspectives you learned. This could also be done by the different chapters that were covered for the same exam.
Combining the Processes for the Greater Good
These two processes can also be combined when trying to learn a new skill. Research states that in many different situations both processes are involved with learning with their own contributions [3]. There are many situations where explicit and implicit information is present that aid in someone solving a problem or learning something new. When reading a text for a class your brain will use the top-down and bottom-up processes to help you interpret the information properly [4]. While reading the text your brain will relate it to something else that you have read that is similar (top-down). Then the knowledge from the previous text is used to guide your understanding of the new text (bottom-up). This combination of the processes is constantly being using when you are studying or learning something new in class. Your brain will take information from a previous lecture that relates it to what you are currently learning. Then this will help guide how you gather information from this new information you are being given. The combination between the two processes is also seen within “task preparation” before a task and “task repetition” [5]. Before performing a task, your brain has to prepare for it and it properly learns the new skill that results from the task you have to continuously repeat it to understand what you have done. This aspect of the processes is constantly being used as well when learning and studying. To do this when studying you first have to prepare by figuring out what information you want to study, what you already know, and what you want to accomplish. Then once you start studying you can then do activities that promote the repetition of the information. This will help with your understanding of the material and being able to push it into your memory.
[1] Sun, R., Merrill, E., & Peterson, T. (2001). From implicit skills to explicit knowledge: a bottom-up model of skill learning. Cognitive Science, 25(2), 203–244. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog2502_2
[2] Borenstein, E., Sharon, E., & Ullman, S. (2004). Combining Top-Down and Bottom-Up Segmentation. 2004 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1109/cvpr.2004.314
[3] Sun, R., & Zhang, X. (2004). Top-down versus bottom-up learning in cognitive skill acquisition. Cognitive Systems Research, 5(1), 63–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2003.07.001
[4] Kurby, C. A., Britt, M. A., & Magliano, J. P. (2005). The Role of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processes in Between-Text Integration. Reading Psychology, 26(4-5), 335–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/02702710500285870
[5] Ruthruff, E., Remington, R. W., & Johnston, J. C. (2001). Switching between simple cognitive tasks: The interaction of top-down and bottom-up factors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(6), 1404–1419. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.27.6.1404