How to (and how not to) think about top-down influences on visual perception |
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Institution: | 1. School of Psychology and Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, CF10 3AT Cardiff, Wales, UK;2. Centre for Philosophical Psychology, University of Antwerp, D 413, Grote Kauwenberg 18, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium;1. Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN Nijmegen, the Netherlands;2. Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe Zollverein, Leitstand Kokerei Zollverein, Kokereiallee 7, 45141 Essen, Germany;3. MIRA Institute for Biomedical Technology and Technical Medicine, University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, the Netherlands |
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Abstract: | The question of whether cognition can influence perception has a long history in neuroscience and philosophy. Here, we outline a novel approach to this issue, arguing that it should be viewed within the framework of top-down information-processing. This approach leads to a reversal of the standard explanatory order of the cognitive penetration debate: we suggest studying top-down processing at various levels without preconceptions of perception or cognition. Once a clear picture has emerged about which processes have influences on those at lower levels, we can re-address the extent to which they should be considered perceptual or cognitive. Using top-down processing within the visual system as a model for higher-level influences, we argue that the current evidence indicates clear constraints on top-down influences at all stages of information processing; it does, however, not support the notion of a boundary between specific types of information-processing as proposed by the cognitive impenetrability hypothesis. |
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Keywords: | Visual perception Top-down processing Feedback connections Cognitive penetration Encapsulation |
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