Robert Fettgather has served as Special Consultant in psychometrics to the Departments of Education and Developmental Disabilities for the State of California. Robert Fettgather holds a specialist credential in learning handicapped and community college credentials in both learning and developmental disabilities.
In addition to cultural and individual differences, perceptions can be influenced by perceptual sets or expectancies. One example of perceptual expectancy is top-down processing. This happens when an individual utilizes pre-existing knowledge to place certain features into an organized whole. If there is no expectancy to help organize information, a person might use bottom-up processing to build a complete perception by making sense of the smaller features piece by piece. With a friend, try this experiment from Martin Bolt: print on a piece of paper the words below. Then read aloud these three words as your friend looks at the words and reads along with you:
FOLK CROAK SOAK
Next, immediately ask, what do you call the white of an egg? That expectation tricks the friend into a wrong answer, yolk!
Bottom-up processing starts with information and energy from the environment. Top-down processing refers to using past experience, knowledge, and expectations for how we perceive things (as in the example above). Remember that perception is a representation of our environment, not a replication-- therefore, everyone’s perceptions may be different, and they may not be necessarily accurate. Once realized, this understanding allows for a deeper appreciation of different points of view!
