When something scary happens on screen, you're more likely to jump in your seat. Think of watching a horror movie at home in the middle of the day, during work, compared to a dark cinema where they eliminate outside stimulus as much as possible. The context in which you perceive different stimuli can influence what you expect to encounter in a given situation. There are many factors that can influence top-down processing, but they fall into one of two broad categories: Context Related: How to become a psychologist in the UK Influences on top-down processes Only once you perceive the holistic situation can you adequately interpret and compartmentalise the stimuli. With top-down processing, you begin by interpreting the whole object or stimuli based on the context of your expectations of what to expect. Top-down processes help you not just gain a perception of finer details, it helps you understand the bigger picture. It helps you to recognise the bigger picture Your prior knowledge of the brand's interaction patterns allows you to apply it to the new device. For example, if you buy a new laptop that's the same brand as your last one, you might use your past experiences relatively quickly and easily figure out how to use the new one, at least at a basic level. Patterns help you understand the world by connecting past events with present stimuli through the knowledge you learned in the past. Top-down processes can help you recognise patterns, which is an important aspect of appropriately interacting with the world around you. When you only focus your mental energies on interpreting those things around you that are new, you can more easily make sense of, and react to, the things that are most relevant. As you encounter information about your outside environment, your initial impressions influence how you interpret the less noticeable details. Top-down processes streamline interpreting stimuli by using context and your pre-existing knowledge to understand the world. Here are a few reasons processing things from the top down is so important: It helps you streamline the interpretation of stimuli Without processing things from the top down, you may become easily overwhelmed by an excess of information. Everything you experience in the outside world makes its way to your brain for processing, and top-down processes allow you to understand your environment quickly and with less effort. There's simply no way to both encounter the world without previous experience affecting your current sensation and perception. Related: Why study A-level psychology? A comprehensive guide Why top-down processes are important Your brain takes what it already knows to fill in this missing information and predict future stimuli. General to specific: Perceptions start as general and shift towards more specific. Past experiences: These individual schemas consist of your past knowledge, your emotions and your expectations. Individual frameworks: In top-down processing, you interpret the world from individual schemas that help you perceive and internalise information. Some key features of top-down processing include: Top-down processes use knowledge gained from experiences, along with current environmental stimuli, to perceive new information. How your sensations and perceptions function, both separately and together, is 'processing'. Sensation involves taking in new information through the five senses, and perception is how your brain makes sense of that information. In psychology, it's commonly thought that two separate systems moderate your experiences - sensation and perception. Top-down processes help ensure that you can internalise these stimuli without causing a full sensory assault. Think of the unique sounds, sights, temperatures or even tastes that make up your sensory experiences. Another way to consider this is to take a moment to situate yourself in the present moment. This means that you can make a sound judgement regarding new stimuli without having to use up 'brain power' required to analyse each detail. Top-down processing is the process of the brain 'sending down' information to your senses as it receives information from different kinds of stimuli. In this article, we explain exactly what top-down processing is, why it's important in modern psychological practice and how you can learn to identify it through the use of examples. Processing things from the top down is a crucial and foundational psychological skill that's important for any student in the field to understand. Current psychological theory suggests that the use of contextual information gained from previous knowledge and experience is key to properly perceiving stimuli. Top-down processing is an important term in psychology used to explain how people perceptually interpret information to make sense of the world around them.
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