Bottom-up and Top-down processes

1. The theory of bottom-up processing was introduced by psychologist E. J. Gibson. He felt that perception was a “what you see is what you get” process. He argued that sensation and perception are the same thing.

2. Buttom Up Processing: It refers to processing sensory information as it is coming in. In other words, if I flash a random picture on the screen, your eyes detect the features, your brain pieces it together, and you perceive a picture of an eagle. What you see is based only on the sensory information coming in.

2.1. We experience sensory information about the world around us, such as light levels from our environment.

3. Top Down Processing refers to perception that is driven by cognition. Your brain applies what it knows and what it expects to perceive and fills in the blanks, so to speak.

3.1. How It works?

3.1.1. Imagine that you are driving down an unfamiliar street and you see a sign for a convenience store. The sign has several missing letters, but you're still able to read it. Why? Because you use top-down processing and rely on your existing knowledge to make an educated guess about what the sign says.

3.1.1.1. Many times this process is applied at the moment of giving homeworks and then you need to fulfil with the missing words in the definitions