Melanie is learning how to read spanish by sounding out each word one letter at a time. melanie is engaging in "bottom-up processing".
In the bottom-up processing approach, perception begins at the sensory info, the stimulus. In this manner, perception can be depicted as information driven. For instance, there is a blossom at the focal point of a man's field. Seeing the bloom and all the data about the stimulus are conveyed from the retina to the visual cortex in the brain. The signal goes one way.
