Although top-down and bottom-up processing are opposite sequences, both are common in our day-to-day lives. In top-down processing, we use basic principles and prior knowledge about our environment to interpret information. When faced with an idea or situation, we draw on our past experiences and being forming thoughts on the subject, which stimulates emotion, which then stimulates the body to respond. Bottom-up processing is the reverse. Instead of using past experiences, we use our senses, and the body is the first to respond. We see, hear, feel, taste, or smell something and that elicits an emotional response, which then stimulates thoughts based off of that emotion.
When browsing through these ideas, I instantaneously thought of a YouTube series (a daily 10-minute talk show, if you will) called Good Mythical Morning. One of their most known activities is food challenges. The duo that host the show often create food combinations (pleasant or otherwise) and try to guess, based on the ingredients and what they know about their personal taste, if they’ll like the concoction or not. To spice things up, there are also challenges where their crew prepares the food and the duo are blindfolded and have to guess the food based on their senses alone. The former example shows top-down processing; the latter shows bottom-up.
A good example of the former is their video Will it Ice Cream Sandwich? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj3qoo750_I). The title speaks for itself. The two squish vanilla ice cream between as assortment of different foods, ranging from peanut butter blocks to blocks of Crayola, and consciously make it in an order that grows substantially worse as the video progresses. They do this, and assess each food combination before eating it, by using top-down processing. They work off their prior knowledge– peanut butter’s a great compliment to ice cream while Crayola isn’t pleasant in any sandwich– and form thoughts on the food, which then elicit a specific emotion for them, which then leads to either happily scarfing down the food sample or hesitating to eat it.
Examples for the latter are any of their blindfolded taste tests, such as one video for exotic meat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfz_NJqfl10). The hosts don’t know what food is front of them and they rely on their sense of taste to inform them on the subject. It’s clear to see a body response often happen first. As they chew, they cringe, turn their head away, or pause in chewing. Viewers can then see an emotion, whether it be delight or disgust, and afterwards the two say aloud their thoughts on the meat. This is a good example of bottom-up processing.
In both of these examples, you can see how top-down and bottom-up processing can occur in everyday life in something as simple as food. You might hear someone mention a desert you love, which makes you think about the sweet, then makes you want to dash to it (top-down), or your nose might catch a pleasant smell from the bakery across the street which then makes you start to think about it (bottom-up). These sequences can be seen in both videos as they rely on either past experience or their senses to guide them. Either way, whether you’re using your nose or your prior love of chocolate to scope out your next desert, I’m sure a Crayola ice cream sandwich isn’t on the menu.