Final answer:
The interpretation stage of perception is the brain assigning meaning to sensory information, influenced by past experiences, expectations, and cultural factors as part of both bottom-up and top-down processing.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the interpretation stage of perception, our brain tries to assign meaning to our perceptions. This process involves the organization and interpretation of sensory information to construct our conscious experience of reality. It often integrates both bottom-up and top-down processing, where bottom-up is driven by the sensory stimuli and top-down is driven by knowledge and expectancy. During this stage, the brain uses past experiences, expectations, cultural backgrounds, and other cognitive factors to generate perceptual hypotheses that influence how we perceive the world around us. As described by Gestalt theorists, this can involve pattern recognition following certain principles that guide our perception.