How Bottom-Up Processing Works

Key Takeaways

• Bottom-up processing begins with sensory data and moves to brain integration.
• This type of processing does not rely on past knowledge or experiences.
• Visual illusions can show how we use bottom-up and top-down processing.

Bottom-up processing is an explanation for perceptions that start with an incoming stimulus and work upward until a representation of the object is formed in our minds. In simpler terms, bottom-up processing is when our environment (stimuli) influences our thinking. This process suggests that our perceptual experience is based entirely on the sensory stimuli that we piece together using only data that is available from our senses.

To make sense of the world, we must take in energy from the environment and convert it to neural signals, a process known as sensation. It is in the next step of the process, known as perception, that our brains interpret these sensory signals.

Verywell / Emily Roberts 

Bottom-Up Processing vs. Top-Down Processing

How exactly do we process perceptual information from the world around us? There are two basic approaches to understanding how this sensation and perception take place. One of these is known as bottom-up processing and the other is top-down processing.

Bottom-up processing can be defined as sensory analysis that begins at the entry level—with what our senses can detect. This form of processing begins with sensory data and goes up to the brain’s integration of this sensory information. Information is carried in one direction, starting with the retina and proceeding to the visual cortex.

This process suggests that processing begins with a perception of the stimuli and is fueled by basic mechanisms developed through evolution. Unlike top-down processing, bottom-up processing is purely data-driven and requires no previous knowledge or learning. Bottom-up processing takes place as it happens.

For example, if you see an image of an individual letter on your screen, your eyes transmit the information to your brain, and your brain puts all of this information together.

How Bottom-Up Processing Works

The theory of bottom-up processing was introduced by psychologist E. J. Gibson, who took a direct approach to the understanding of perception. Rather than being dependent upon learning and context, Gibson felt that perception was a “what you see is what you get” process. He argued that sensation and perception are the same things.

Because Gibson’s theory suggests that processing can be understood solely in terms of environmental stimuli, it is referred to as the ecological theory of perception.

Bottom-up processing works like this:

1. We experience sensory information about the world around us, such as light levels from our environment.
2. These signals are brought to the retina. Transduction transforms these signals into electrical impulses that can then be transmitted.
3. Electrical impulses travel along visual pathways to the brain, where they enter the visual cortex and are processed to form our visual experience.

This approach to understanding perception is an example of reductionism. Rather than looking at perception more holistically, including how sensory information, visual processes, and expectations contribute to how we see the world, bottom-up processing breaks the process down into its most basic elements.

Example of Bottom-Up Processing

We can compare bottom-up processing to top-down processing by considering an example that looks at each. As one example, imagine that you see a somewhat obscure shape. If we saw the shape on its own, using bottom-up processing, we might immediately perceive it as a capital letter B.

Now, if someone were to place that image next to other context clues, such as next to the numbers 12 and 14, we might then perceive it as the number 13 rather than a capital B. In this case, we use top-down processing to interpret the visual information in light of surrounding visual cues.

Is Reading an Example of Bottom-Up Processing?

Some researchers consider reading an example of bottom-up processing, stating that we decode text by starting with the smallest linguistic units, then moving to larger ones. Others argue that reading is a top-down process in that we don’t read every word but, instead, guess what the words and phrases mean based on previous experience.

Bottom-Up Processing’s Impact on Perception

You have probably seen a number of visual illusions where random ink blobs initially look like ambiguous shapes but, after a moment, they begin to look like a face. If we used only bottom-up processing, these ink blobs would continue to look like random shapes on paper.

However, because our brains are predisposed to perceive faces, and because of top-down processes, we are likely to begin to see a human face in these ambiguous shapes.

The experience of visual illusions can illustrate how bottom-up and top-down processes influence how we experience the world.

Prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, is a neurological disorder in which people are unable to recognize familiar faces, including their own. While other aspects of visual processing and cognitive functioning remain unaffected, people experience functional sensation but incomplete perception. Patients are able to perceive familiar faces, but are not able to recognize them.

In this case, bottom-up processing remains functional, but a lack of top-down processing makes them unable to relate what they are seeing to stored knowledge. This demonstrates how important both processes are in shaping our perceptual experiences.

Bottom-up processing can be extremely useful for understanding certain elements of how perception occurs. However, research has also shown that other factors including expectation and motivation (elements of top-down processing) can impact how we perceive things around us.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?

Helpful

Report an Error

Other