Question

Write short note in 50 to 60 words.

Types of perceptual processing

Answer 1

Perception is defined as ‘the process of assigning meaning to information received about the environment based on previous experiences’. Top-down processing and bottom-up processing are the two types of processing.

• Top-down processing: If we paid constant attention to each of our senses, they would become overwhelmed. As a result, when we perceive a specific input, our brain frequently employs context or general information. This is known as Top-down processing. When we use top-down processing, the context in which information appears affects our capacity to interpret it.
• Bottom- up processing: Many times, our perceptual impressions are based only on sensory stimuli and are unaffected by the environment in which they appear. In such cases, we take in energy from our surroundings, turn it to neural signals (sensation), and then attempt to understand it (perception). This is referred to as bottom-up processing. It is a process that begins with an incoming input and progresses upward until a representation of the item is produced in our brain.