Signals and expectations meet
Connect incoming sensory information with knowledge and context.
The picture in words
- Bottom-up processing
- Sensory features contribute to perception.
- Top-down processing
- Knowledge and expectations help interpret input.
- Perception
- These contributions work together in recognizing an event.
Reading the illustration
Read the visual features and the letter sequence as two contributions to recognizing the same letter B.
Try a question
How could an unclear word become easier to recognize in a sentence?
Show the explanation
The surrounding words provide context and expectations. They combine with the visible letters to guide an interpretation.
Read the sources
- Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/5-1-sensation-versus-perceptionSelected rendered passages: Transduction, sensory adaptation, attention passages.