Top-down

Definition
Top-down information, in contrast to bottom-up information, covers all types of non-sensory information. It covers knowledge of the world, context information, but also knowledge about language or about the lexicon. In case the acoustic signal is ambiguous between "paper" and "baper", lexical knowledge can be used to decide that the intended word must be "paper", as "baper" is not a word of English.

Links

 * Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics