Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsBottom vs. TopHow It WorksExampleImpact
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Table of Contents
Bottom vs. Top
How It Works
Example
Impact
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Bottom-up processing is an explanation for perceptions that start with an incoming stimulus and work upward until a representation of the object is formed in our minds. This process suggests that our perceptual experience is based entirely on the sensory stimuli that we piece together using only data that is available from our senses.
In order to make sense of the world, we must take in energy from the environment and convert it to neural signals, a process known as sensation. It is in the next step of the process, known asperception, that our brains interpret these sensory signals.
Verywell / Emily Roberts
Bottom-Up Processing vs. Top-Down Processing
How exactly do people process perceptual information from the world around them? There are two basic approaches to understanding how this sensation and perception take place. One of these is known as bottom-up processing and the other is known as top-down processing.
Bottom-UpData drivenFocuses on incoming sensory dataTakes place in real timeTop-DownInfo is interpreted using contextual cluesUses previous experiences and expectations
Bottom-UpData drivenFocuses on incoming sensory dataTakes place in real time
Data driven
Focuses on incoming sensory data
Takes place in real time
Top-DownInfo is interpreted using contextual cluesUses previous experiences and expectations
Info is interpreted using contextual clues
Uses previous experiences and expectations
Bottom-up processing can be defined as sensory analysis that begins at the entry level—with what oursensescan detect. This form of processing begins with sensory data and goes up to the brain’s integration of this sensory information. Information is carried in one direction, starting with the retina and proceeding to the visual cortex.
For example, if you see an image of an individual letter on your screen, your eyes transmit the information to your brain, and your brain puts all of this information together.
How Bottom-Up Processing Works
Because Gibson’s theory suggests that processing can be understood solely in terms of environmental stimuli, it is referred to as the ecological theory of perception.
Bottom-up processing works like this:
This approach to understanding perception is an example of reductionism. Rather than looking at perception moreholistically, including how sensory information, visual processes, and expectations contribute to how we see the world, bottom-up processing breaks the process down into its most basic elements.
How Does Reductionism Work in Psychology?
Example of Bottom-Up Processing
Now, if someone were to place that image next to other context clues, such as next to the numbers 12 and 14, you might then perceive it as the number 13 rather than a capital B. In this case, you use top-down processing to interpret the visual information in light of surrounding visual cues.
Is Reading an Example of Bottom-Up Processing?
Bottom-Up Processing’s Impact on Perception
You have probably seen a number of visual illusions where random ink blobs initially look like ambiguous shapes but, after a moment, they begin to look like a face. If we used only bottom-up processing, these ink blobs would continue to look like random shapes on paper.
However, because our brains are predisposed to perceive faces, and because of top-down processes, we are likely to begin to see a human face in these ambiguous shapes.
The experience of visual illusions can illustrate how bottom-up and top-down processes influence how we experience the world.
Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a neurological disorder in which people are unable to recognize familiar faces, including their own. While other aspects of visual processing andcognitive functioningremain unaffected, people experience functional sensation but incomplete perception.Patients are able to perceive familiar faces, but are not able to recognize them.
In this case, bottom-up processing remains functional, but a lack of top-down processing makes them unable to relate what they are seeing to stored knowledge. This demonstrates how important both processes are in shaping our perceptual experiences.
A Word From Verywell
Bottom-up processing can be extremely useful for understanding certain elements of how perception occurs. However, research has also shown that other factors includingexpectationandmotivation(elements of top-down processing) can have an impact on how we perceive things around us.
What Is Top-Down Processing?
3 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Costall A.1966 and all that: James Gibson and bottom-down theory. Ecological Psychology. 2017 Jul 3;29(3):221-30.Gilakjani AP, Sabouri NB.How can students improve their reading comprehension skill?J Studies Educ. 2016;6(2):229-240. doi:10.5296/jse.v6i2.9201National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Prosopagnosia Information Page.Additional ReadingStokes, D & Matthen, M. Perception and Its Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2015.
3 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Costall A.1966 and all that: James Gibson and bottom-down theory. Ecological Psychology. 2017 Jul 3;29(3):221-30.Gilakjani AP, Sabouri NB.How can students improve their reading comprehension skill?J Studies Educ. 2016;6(2):229-240. doi:10.5296/jse.v6i2.9201National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Prosopagnosia Information Page.Additional ReadingStokes, D & Matthen, M. Perception and Its Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2015.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Costall A.1966 and all that: James Gibson and bottom-down theory. Ecological Psychology. 2017 Jul 3;29(3):221-30.Gilakjani AP, Sabouri NB.How can students improve their reading comprehension skill?J Studies Educ. 2016;6(2):229-240. doi:10.5296/jse.v6i2.9201National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Prosopagnosia Information Page.
Costall A.1966 and all that: James Gibson and bottom-down theory. Ecological Psychology. 2017 Jul 3;29(3):221-30.
Gilakjani AP, Sabouri NB.How can students improve their reading comprehension skill?J Studies Educ. 2016;6(2):229-240. doi:10.5296/jse.v6i2.9201
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.Prosopagnosia Information Page.
Stokes, D & Matthen, M. Perception and Its Modalities. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2015.
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