We Believe To See

Perception and Top-Down Processing

Here's a game to play with the family on a road tip.

Bob is dead in the living room. You must play detective to determine the cause of Bob's death. You can ask me any question about Bob's body or the house as you investigate. I'll answer your questions and from those answers you'll have to crack the case.

The questions come. Where is Bob? He's in the living room. Is there any blood or wounds on the body? No, there is no visible blood, cuts, injuries, or wounds. Is there a gun in the house? There is a gun in the basement. Any open medicine bottles around Bob? No, but there are medicine bottles in the bathroom.

As the questioning continues, some weird details emerge. Bob is naked. Bob is wet. And so the game goes.

You might have played this game before. If you haven't, here's the secret. Bob is a goldfish who has jumped out of his bowl and died. The trick of the game is that when people hear "Bob is dead in the living room" they automatically and implicitly assume Bob is a human. The crime scene and detective setup reinforces the impression. And once that assumption is made this game can go on for a very long time, befuddling the detectives. And feel free to share answers about the house that deepens the mystery and causes the detectives to chase rabbits. Put a Ouija board on a table, a clown costume on a couch, or drugs in the bedroom. Anything to distract the group from asking the one question that will crack the case: "Is Bob a human?"

The "Bob is dead in the living room" game illustrates what psychologists call top-down processing. Our perceptions are shaped by prior knowledge, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations. We impose meaning upon the world, and while that meaning brings some things into view it blinds us a well. You've heard the old adage, "seeing is believing." Well, it's also true that "believing is seeing." Perception is more top-down than bottom-up.

In discussing value in yesterday's post I mentioned Jordan Peterson. If you know Peterson's work you know that one of his big ideas concerns how value guides perception. What Peterson is popularizing is top-down processing. The mind has to impose value, meaning, and order upon sense perception. Without top-down processing sense perception would be a chaotic flurry and buzz of impressions. Students of Kant will discern here something similar to Kant's notion of a priori categories that the mind has to impose upon sensation in order to meaningfully interpret the world.

All this to make a point about faith. Faith is less about bottom-up processing than top-down processing. Faith is an a priori assumption that brings the world into view. Faith is the imposition of value and meaning that makes perception possible.

We believe to see.