Processing Types

Bottom-Up

• We sense the stimulus first

• The perceive and process the experience

Top-Down

• First, we perceive and process the experience

  • This causes expectations

  • And can be from experience,

  • Culture

  • Motivation

  • Emotion

• Then, the stimulus is sensed

Phenomenons

Perceptual Set

• Our tendency to perceive some parts of sensory data and ignore others

• Influences on perceptual set are the same as in top-down processing

  • Expectations

  • Experience

  • Culture

  • Motivation

  • Emotion

    • Angry people perceive hostility in others

Schemas

• Mental frameworks for organizing our understanding of the world around us

• We build schemas from birth, and they influence our expectations and preconceptions

• Examples include…

  • How you expect your day to go

  • What friendship, family, and love mean to you

  • Good and bad food