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Psychologist have always been divided on whether perception is what directs cognition or if it is constructed by cognition In the first case this approach can be considered and classified as data driven since it is only constructed by the stimulus received from the environment and is not influenced by internal goals expectations or memories It is defined as bottom up processing In the second case perception is driven not only by the external stimuli but also by one s previous memories and knowledge and this is defined as top down processing Therefore what can be said is that one of the main focus of multiple researches about perception was to find whether the process is to be defined as top down or bottom up Many psychologists stated that the two occurs simultaneously and that it is not possible for one to exist without the other however multiple experiments have been conducted and we have yet to find a definite answer to the question if there is one This essay will explore through different experiments the possibility that perceptions are more likely to be constructed through top down processing This controversy was especially discussed by the British psychologist Richard Langton Gregory 1970 who proposed the top down theory According to Gregory we are actively constructing our perception of reality and in this process our past experiences play a major role In 1970 he stated that since about 90 of the information that we perceive through the eyes doesn't reach our brain the latter has to guess what a person sees
