In the research article “Top-Down Processes Override Bottom-Up Interference in the Flanker Task,” written by Rotem Avital-Cohen and Yehoshua Tsal, it is explained that top down processing is key to being successful in the flanker task. Avital-Cohen and Tsal hypothesized the probability that the brain uses top-down processing when dealing with various distractors, which are stimuli different than what participants are supposed to be paying attention to. These experiments provide evidence to a variety of subsets of top-down processing. Using the topics learned in lecture, it is easy to comprehend the data within the article. Looking at both of the experiments in the article, our understanding of top-down processing can be enhanced, particularly
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In the first experiment, participants were told to hit the left “ctrl” key if they saw the letter “S” and to hit the right “ctrl.” In 75 percent of the trials, the letters were surrounded by the unambiguous characters “A,” “F,” “L,” “3,” “4,” and “6.” When surrounded by a letter, the ambiguous character was viewed as a letter, and vice versa when surrounded with numbers. However, 25 percent of the trials had one ambiguous letter surrounded by the others, meaning that the “S-5” character would be surrounded by the “O-0” character, and vice versa. The trials discovered that the error rate and reaction time increased when faced with the ambiguous task. The independent variables are the conditions, either congruent or incongruent and either numbers or digits. The dependent variables are reaction …show more content…
There are two main theories of processing perception, top-down processing and bottom-up processing. Bottom-up processing states that the environment gives all of the cues needed to guide the perception of the world around you. Top-down processing implies that your mind’s expectations for what you are about to see guide your expectations and your mind uses these expectations to adapt to reality (Psych 240 lecture, 09/21/16). The study reinforces the idea of top-down processing in showing that the reaction times are slower and there are more errors when the flanking characters are ambiguous as well. This result of Experiment One shows that an unclear context can truly make a difference in how we perceive things. Experiment Two also establishes this. The results show that when the condition was incongruent, the reaction time and error rate were higher, showing that when the letter is surrounded by numbers, participants expect to see a number, rather than the letter stimulus. When the title says that top-down processes “override” the bottom-up processes, it means that the bottom-up idea of viewing is false. Looking at the experiment, if the bottom-up concept were true, the reaction times would hypothetically be very similar, regardless of the context around them (Avital-Cohen &
In the first experiment, participants were told to hit the left “ctrl” key if they saw the letter “S” and to hit the right “ctrl.” In 75 percent of the trials, the letters were surrounded by the unambiguous characters “A,” “F,” “L,” “3,” “4,” and “6.” When surrounded by a letter, the ambiguous character was viewed as a letter, and vice versa when surrounded with numbers. However, 25 percent of the trials had one ambiguous letter surrounded by the others, meaning that the “S-5” character would be surrounded by the “O-0” character, and vice versa. The trials discovered that the error rate and reaction time increased when faced with the ambiguous task. The independent variables are the conditions, either congruent or incongruent and either numbers or digits. The dependent variables are reaction …show more content…
There are two main theories of processing perception, top-down processing and bottom-up processing. Bottom-up processing states that the environment gives all of the cues needed to guide the perception of the world around you. Top-down processing implies that your mind’s expectations for what you are about to see guide your expectations and your mind uses these expectations to adapt to reality (Psych 240 lecture, 09/21/16). The study reinforces the idea of top-down processing in showing that the reaction times are slower and there are more errors when the flanking characters are ambiguous as well. This result of Experiment One shows that an unclear context can truly make a difference in how we perceive things. Experiment Two also establishes this. The results show that when the condition was incongruent, the reaction time and error rate were higher, showing that when the letter is surrounded by numbers, participants expect to see a number, rather than the letter stimulus. When the title says that top-down processes “override” the bottom-up processes, it means that the bottom-up idea of viewing is false. Looking at the experiment, if the bottom-up concept were true, the reaction times would hypothetically be very similar, regardless of the context around them (Avital-Cohen &