Hallucinations and mental imagery demonstrate top-down effects on visual perception
Behavioral and Brain Sciences January 1, 2016 Piers D. L. Howe, Olivia Carter 26 citations
Perception can be actively shaped by top-down processes such as prior knowledge and expectations, not merely influenced by them. Two clear examples—hallucinations and mental imagery—demonstrate this, and importantly, both avoid the six confounds that Firestone and Scholl previously argued undermined claims of top-down effects on perception. This suggests that top-down influences on perception are real and not artifacts of experimental design.