This document discusses perception and how the brain interprets sensory information from the outside world. It explains that perception involves both bottom-up and top-down processing. Bottom-up processing involves building perceptions from individual sensory inputs, while top-down processing uses existing knowledge and schemas to help interpret new information. Optical illusions demonstrate how both types of processing can influence perception and how expectations can impact what we think we see.

1. Perception
How we interpret our world

2. IB Learning Outcomes
C9- With reference to relevant research
studies, to what extent is one cognitive
process reliable?
Key-Terms:
 Bottom-Up and Top-Down processing

3. Which Ball is Bigger?
How do you know?

4. What is Perception?
The process by which the brain organizes and
interprets sensory information.
 Takes in sensory information from our outside world and
gives it meaning.

5. Sensory Receptors
1. Information collected through the Eyes, Ears,
Nose, Skin, Tongue (Sensory Receptors).
2. Information processed in the brain.

6. Visual Cues
Distance & Size (Depth)
Boundaries & Edges
Figures & Backgrounds
Color & Shading (Texture)
Placement
Others?

7. How I Perceive Annie the
Anniversary Dog

8. Types of Processing
Bottom-Up Processing
Top-Down Processing

9. Bottom-Up Processing
Data Driven Processing
Processing incoming individual pieces of
sensory data and constructing them into a
whole. (Parts into Whole)
Starting point of perception.

10. Bottom-Up Processing Example

11. Bottom-Up Perception
Lets break it down…
Thousands of Yellow and Brown Lego Bricks
 Blades of grass
Fences
A crowd of people in the background
 Start with a pile of legos at the Bottom (Individual
elements) and you must build them Up (Whole)

12. Top-Down Processing
Knowledge/Context/Hypothesis Driven
Processing
 Processing based on our knowledge about the
world.
We perceive what we are expecting to perceive

13. Schema Theory
A mental representation of knowledge stored in the
brain. A Schema can be seen as a network of
knowledge, beliefs, and expectations about
particular aspects of the world.
We use our schemas to help us process
information from our environments and they
impact how we interpret that information.

14. Top-Down Processing

15. Optical Illusions
How does Bottom-Up and Top-Down
processing help explain the following
illusions?

18. Group 1

19. Group 2

20. What do you see?

21. Perceptual Sets
Perceptual Sets: Sets formed when
expectations influence perceptions

22. Perceptual Sets