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Definition
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Influential Factors
Examples
Potential Pitfalls
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Top-down processing involves perceiving things based on your prior experiences and knowledge. In other words, you use what you already know to make sense of the new information you encounter. It refers to how our brain utilizes existing knowledge and expectations to interpret new sensory information.
Instead of interpreting the world based solely on the information we gather from our senses, the brain uses pre-existing concepts, ideas, and knowledge to comprehend sensory input.
This article explores top-down processing in greater depth and explores some of the factors that can influence how it works.
What Is Top-Down Processing?
“Traditionally, “top-down perception” refers to situations in which context, learning, or expectation alters a perceptual process,” write researchers Nicholas Gaspelin, PhD, and Steven J. Luck, PhD, in an article in theJournal of Cognition.
In top-down processing,perceptionsbegin with the most general and move toward the more specific. Ourexpectationsand prior knowledge heavily influence these perceptions.
Put simply; your brain applies what it knows to fill in the blanks and anticipate what’s next.
For example, if half of a tree branch is covered, you usually have an idea of what it looks like, even though half is not being shown. This is because you know what trees look like from prior knowledge.
While this process relies on past learning, context, and expectations, it is an automatic process.
Why We Use Top-Down Processing
Top-down processing also helps us fill in gaps in ambiguous or incomplete situations.
Oursensesare constantly taking in new information. At any given time, we’re experiencing a never-ending stream of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and physical sensations. If we had to focus equally on all of these sensations every second of every day, we would be overwhelmed.
Top-down processing helps simplify our understanding of the world. It allows us to quickly make sense of all the information our senses bring in to navigate the world more effectively, recognize patterns, and make decisions.
As you begin to take in more information about your environment, your initial impressions (based on previous experiences and patterns) influence how you interpret the finer details.
This type of processing can be useful when we are looking for patterns in our environment, but thesepredispositionscan also hinder our ability to perceive things in new and different ways.
Influences on This Process
Several things can influence top-down processing, including context andmotivation. Specific circumstances, how we feel about a certain topic, and even our emotional state while having an experience might affect top-down processing.
Context
The context, or circumstances, in which an event or object is perceived can affect what we expect to find in that particular situation. Context can provide clues that tell us how we should interpret something we encounter.
For example, if you are reading an article about food and nutrition, you might interpret a word you’re unfamiliar with as something related to food.
Motivation
Motivationcan also make you more likely to interpret something in a particular way. For example, if you were shown a series of ambiguous images, you might be more motivated to perceive them as food-related when hungry.
Expectations
What you expect to encounter in a situation can also affect how you ultimately interpret it. If you believe that you will experience something in a specific situation, it is going to influence how your brain processes what you encounter.
Knowledge
Your previously existing knowledge about a specific topic or situation will also have an effect on your you perceive new information. For example, a novice might process information differently than someone who holds expertise in the subject.
Ambiguity
In ambiguous situations, your brain is more likely to rely on top-down processing to fill in the gaps. For example, when interpreting avisual illusion, your brain often fills in missing visual information to help make sense of an ambiguous figure.
The Kanizsa triangle illusion is one example of how top-down processing can fill gaps to allow the brain to perceive a cohesive shape.
The illusion consists of three incomplete circles and triangles resulting in a white triangle in the center. The edges of the triangle do not exist in the image, but the brain uses top-down processing to perceive a familiar shape.
Examples of Top-Down Processing
In order to better understand how top-down processing works, it can be helpful to explore a few examples of this phenomenon in action.
The Stroop Effect
One classic example of top-down processing in action is a phenomenon known as theStroop effect. In this task, people are shown a list of words printed in different colors. They’re then asked to name the ink color, rather than the word itself.
Interestingly, people are much slower and make more mistakes when the meaning of the word and the ink color doesn’t match. So, for example, people have a harder time when the word “red” is printed in green ink instead of red ink.
Top-down processing explains why this task is so difficult. People automatically recognize the word before they think about the specific features of that word (like what color it’s written in). This makes it easier to read the word aloud rather than to say the color of the word.
Perceptual Set
Aperceptual setrefers to the tendency to perceive things in a certain way based on past experiences, emotions, cultural influences, and expectations. This tendency is an example of top-down processing.
Our existing mental frameworks play a role in guiding these perceptual sets. For example, people have aschema, or cognitive framework, for faces that makes it easier to recognize people who are familiar to us, even in a crowd.
This same schema, however, also leads us to sometimes see faces where there are none. This is why you might see faces in everyday objects, a phenomenon known as face pareidolia.
Typos
If you’ve experienced some version of this scenario, you’re not alone. Most people find it difficult to catch their own typos. But it’s not because they’re unintelligent. According to psychologist Tom Stafford, it may actually be because you’re smart!
“When you’re writing, you’re trying to convey meaning. It’s a very high-level task… We don’t catch every detail, we’re not like computers or NSA databases. Rather, we take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning,” he explained in an interview withWiredmagazine.
Because writing is such a high-level task, your brain tricks you into reading what youthinkyou should see on the page. It fills in missing details and corrects errors without you even noticing. This allows you to focus on the more complex task of turning sentences into complex ideas.
Reading Misspelled Text
The same principles apply to the ability to read text riddled with misspellings.
For example:
Passages like this have been bouncing around the internet for years. But how do we read them? How do our brains so quickly make sense of these jumbled letters? The answer is simple: top-down processing.
How Bottom-Up Processing Works
Potential Pitfalls of Top-Down Processing
While top-down processing has important benefits, it can sometimes have downsides. Basing our interpretations on past knowledge can lead to faster decision-making, but it can also lead to mistakes.
Top-down processing can also prevent us from seeing novel ways of thinking about a problem. This can prevent you from learning new things, considering alternative solutions, or overcoming biased thinking.
Functional Fixedness as a Cognitive Bias
5 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.Gaspelin N, Luck SJ. “Top-down” does not mean “voluntary”.J Cogn. 2018;1(1):25. doi:10.5334/joc.28Gregory RL.Concepts and Mechanisms of Perception. Duckworth; 1974.de Haas B, Schwarzkopf DS.Spatially selective responses to Kanizsa and occlusion stimuli in human visual cortex.Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):611. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-19121-zPalmer CJ, Clifford CWG.Face pareidolia recruits mechanisms for detecting human social attention.Psychol Sci. 2020;31(8):1001-1012. doi:10.1177/0956797620924814Stockton N.What’s up with that: Why it’s so hard to catch your own typos.Wired. August 12, 2014.Additional ReadingBernstein D.Essentials of Psychology 7th Edition. Cengage Learning; 2018.Stroop JR.Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.J Exp Psychol. 1935;18(6):643-662. doi:10.1037/h0054651
5 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.Gaspelin N, Luck SJ. “Top-down” does not mean “voluntary”.J Cogn. 2018;1(1):25. doi:10.5334/joc.28Gregory RL.Concepts and Mechanisms of Perception. Duckworth; 1974.de Haas B, Schwarzkopf DS.Spatially selective responses to Kanizsa and occlusion stimuli in human visual cortex.Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):611. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-19121-zPalmer CJ, Clifford CWG.Face pareidolia recruits mechanisms for detecting human social attention.Psychol Sci. 2020;31(8):1001-1012. doi:10.1177/0956797620924814Stockton N.What’s up with that: Why it’s so hard to catch your own typos.Wired. August 12, 2014.Additional ReadingBernstein D.Essentials of Psychology 7th Edition. Cengage Learning; 2018.Stroop JR.Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.J Exp Psychol. 1935;18(6):643-662. doi:10.1037/h0054651
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.
Gaspelin N, Luck SJ. “Top-down” does not mean “voluntary”.J Cogn. 2018;1(1):25. doi:10.5334/joc.28Gregory RL.Concepts and Mechanisms of Perception. Duckworth; 1974.de Haas B, Schwarzkopf DS.Spatially selective responses to Kanizsa and occlusion stimuli in human visual cortex.Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):611. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-19121-zPalmer CJ, Clifford CWG.Face pareidolia recruits mechanisms for detecting human social attention.Psychol Sci. 2020;31(8):1001-1012. doi:10.1177/0956797620924814Stockton N.What’s up with that: Why it’s so hard to catch your own typos.Wired. August 12, 2014.
Gaspelin N, Luck SJ. “Top-down” does not mean “voluntary”.J Cogn. 2018;1(1):25. doi:10.5334/joc.28
Gregory RL.Concepts and Mechanisms of Perception. Duckworth; 1974.
de Haas B, Schwarzkopf DS.Spatially selective responses to Kanizsa and occlusion stimuli in human visual cortex.Sci Rep. 2018;8(1):611. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-19121-z
Palmer CJ, Clifford CWG.Face pareidolia recruits mechanisms for detecting human social attention.Psychol Sci. 2020;31(8):1001-1012. doi:10.1177/0956797620924814
Stockton N.What’s up with that: Why it’s so hard to catch your own typos.Wired. August 12, 2014.
Bernstein D.Essentials of Psychology 7th Edition. Cengage Learning; 2018.Stroop JR.Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.J Exp Psychol. 1935;18(6):643-662. doi:10.1037/h0054651
Bernstein D.Essentials of Psychology 7th Edition. Cengage Learning; 2018.
Stroop JR.Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions.J Exp Psychol. 1935;18(6):643-662. doi:10.1037/h0054651
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