Cognitive processing Top-down vs bottom-up processing

Reading consists of perceptual and meaningful information processing. Thus, a meaningful plan (the meaning of the text) and a procedural plan (how to read and voice the text) are distinguished in the reading. In terms of content, the result of the activity will be an understanding of the text (read), in the process — the process of reading itself, that is, correlation of graphemes with phonemes, formation of internal speech hearing, translation into internal pronunciation, reduction of internal pronunciation, etc.
In the structure of reading as an activity, one can identify a motive (communication using a printed word), a goal (obtaining information that interests the reader), conditions of activity (mastering the graphic system of the language and methods of extracting information), and result (understanding the text with varying degrees of accuracy). Structurally, reading, like any verbal activity, is characterized by a level character, which leads to a phased work in teaching reading.
Most methodologists distinguish the following steps:
motivational incentive,
analytical and synthetic,
control executive.
Consequently, learning to read will be built in the same way as learning other types of speech activity, i.e., as a step-by-step process, and will include a pre-text stage: motivation, preparation for reading, textual (actual reading) and post-textual stages. The last stage is associated with the processing, comprehension of the obtained information and control of the correctness of its understanding.
Cognitive processing
Top-down vs bottom-up processing
Top-down processing refers to the use of background knowledge to predict the meaning of the reading or listening text. For example, readers develop hypotheses about the content of a text, which they have to confirm or reject while reading. The uptake of information is thus guided by an individual’s prior knowledge and expectations.
Bottom-up processing, however, relies on the actual words or sounds. That is, students construct meaning from the most basic units of language, including letters, letter clusters, and words.
Teachers who encouraged bottom-up processing, emphasize the decoding skills. They are not concerned with guiding learners to recognize what they, as readers, brought to the understanding of the text.
To use the metaphor of the wall, with the top-down processing, you see the wall as a whole; you are not concerned with the different bricks that constitute the wall. By contrast, with the bottom-up processing, the focus is on the bricks of the wall.