The Gestalt belief surely conforms to the normal subjective experienceof perception. However the immediacy and directness of an impression are no guarantee that it reflects an early stage of information processing in the nervous system. It is logically possible that we become aware only of the final outcome of a complicated sequence of prior operations. “Topdown” processing may describe what we consciously experience; as a theory about perceptual coding it needs more objective support (Treisman, 1979).