Peception Involves Bottom and Top Down Processing
Evaluate the evidence that visual perception involves bottom-up and top-down processing.
The perceptual system is comprised of a of a diverse range of senses including visual, auditory, olfactory and tactition; the perceptual system is part of the nervous system, which contains millions of nerve cells called receptors that sense and respond to a plethora of sensory stimuli including light, sound and temperature. The act of perceiving rather than merely sensing enables us to analyse and make sense of incoming sensory information, allowing us to construct a description of the environment to inform and guide our actions within a complex, dynamic world. For primates, as compared to other species, vision has predominantly been relied upon to guide interaction within the environment and as such has evolved to become more highly developed and sophisticated than the other senses (Pike & Edgar, 2010 p.66); consequently, how visual perception arises, the goal of perception and the processes involved are debated and disputed within the psychological field. This essay shall evaluate evidence put forward by ecological, constructive, and dual-process approaches in light of whether they posit visual perception as involving bottom-up and /or top-down processing.
Technologic advances afford us a clear understanding of the physiology of sight; incoming light permeates the cornea, which is focused into the retina containing receptor cells called rods and cones. Rods assist vision in low-level light, whilst cones, located primarily in the fovea are responsible for detecting fine detail and colours. The rods and cones are linked to the optic nerve, which send information via the lateral geniculate to the visual cortex. The visual cortex is responsible for processing the incoming visual information (Pike & Edgar, 2010 pp 66 & 94); how this information is then interpreted is what we term perception. Whilst science can implicitly explicate the visual system, visual perception is
The perceptual system is comprised of a of a diverse range of senses including visual, auditory, olfactory and tactition; the perceptual system is part of the nervous system, which contains millions of nerve cells called receptors that sense and respond to a plethora of sensory stimuli including light, sound and temperature. The act of perceiving rather than merely sensing enables us to analyse and make sense of incoming sensory information, allowing us to construct a description of the environment to inform and guide our actions within a complex, dynamic world. For primates, as compared to other species, vision has predominantly been relied upon to guide interaction within the environment and as such has evolved to become more highly developed and sophisticated than the other senses (Pike & Edgar, 2010 p.66); consequently, how visual perception arises, the goal of perception and the processes involved are debated and disputed within the psychological field. This essay shall evaluate evidence put forward by ecological, constructive, and dual-process approaches in light of whether they posit visual perception as involving bottom-up and /or top-down processing.
Technologic advances afford us a clear understanding of the physiology of sight; incoming light permeates the cornea, which is focused into the retina containing receptor cells called rods and cones. Rods assist vision in low-level light, whilst cones, located primarily in the fovea are responsible for detecting fine detail and colours. The rods and cones are linked to the optic nerve, which send information via the lateral geniculate to the visual cortex. The visual cortex is responsible for processing the incoming visual information (Pike & Edgar, 2010 pp 66 & 94); how this information is then interpreted is what we term perception. Whilst science can implicitly explicate the visual system, visual perception is