The hierarchical accumulation of knowledge in the Distributed Adaptive Control architecture Encarni Marcos, Milanka Ringwald, Armin Duff, Mart´ ı S´ anchez-Fibla, Paul F.M.J. Verschure Abstract Animals acquire knowledge as they interact with the world. Several au- thors define this acquisition as a chain of transformations: data are acquired and converted into information that is converted into knowledge. Moreover, cumulative learning theory suggests that different cognitive layers accumulate this knowledge building highly complex skills from low complexity ones. The biologically based Distributed Adaptive Control cognitive architecture (DAC) has been proposed as a cumulative learning system. DAC contains different layers of control: reactive, adaptive and contextual. This hierarchical organization allows for acquisition of knowledge in a bottom-up interaction, i. e. sampled data is transformed into knowl- edge. DAC has already been used as a framework to investigate fundamental prob- lems encountered in biology. Here we describe the DAC architecture and present some studies focused on its highest cognitive layer where knowledge is constructed and used. We show how multi-sensor information could be integrated in order to acquire and use knowledge optimally. Further, we investigate the roles of reactive and contextual control depending on the characteristics and complexity of the tasks. We also compare different scenarios for the selection of actions generated by the different layers of the hierarchical architecture and its implications for knowledge representation. We discuss the possible problems of cumulative learning and the adopted solutions in the context of DAC. Encarni Marcos SPECS, Technology Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer de Roc Boronat 138, E-08018 Barcelona, Spain, e-mail: encarnacion.marcos@upf.edu Paul Verschure ICREA Instituci´ o Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avanc ¸ats, Passeig Llu´ ıs Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain, e-mail: paul.verschure@upf.edu All SPECS, Technology Department, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer de Roc Boronat 138, E-08018 Barcelona, Spain 1