Listening to foreign language requires top-down processing

Perception combines bottom-up and top-down processing. It is easy to understand that that things we perceive are coming from our senses, but harder to understand what top-down processing means without an example.

Listening to foreign language utilises your sense of hearing. Assuming that you're listening to a foreign language that you don't understand, you'd probably can't recognise any of the words. But if you have a little knowledge of the foreign language, you may be able to recognise some words.

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References

Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology (p. 60).

Another example of how top-down processing influences perception is provided by something that happens when you watch a foreign language TV channel, for example a Spanish one. If you don't speak Spanish, you won't understand anything the people are saying. In fact, the dialogue will sound like an unbroken string of sound, except occasionally when a familiar word like gracias or cash pops out.