Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing (core theme of cognition)

Cognitive processing is driven from the bottom up by incoming data and from the top down by our prior experiences.

• Ex: A radiologist sees a tumor on a scan where you see gray blur.
• Ex: You hear your name across a loud room, even though you weren’t listening for it.

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Last updated: August 22, 2026 at 6:46 PM