Three Levels of Processing: Visceral, Behavioural and Reflective

Cognitive scientist Donald Norman along with his colleagues Andrew Ortony and William Revelle, professors in the Psychology Department at Northwestern University, framed the theory of three levels of processing-

• Visceral level: perceptive reaction
• Behavioral level: behavioral reaction
• Reflective level: affective system to learning new concept

(Ref. Donald Norman (2004), ‘Emotional Design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things’
Norman Donald (1988), ‘The Design of Everyday Things’
http://www.jnd.org/books/emotional-design-why-we-love-or-hate-everyday-things.html ; June 15, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things ; June 15, 2012)

Visceral level: perceptive reaction

At this level the brain perceives, analyzes and reacts to the situation. We see, hear, feel, or other-wise sense the environment, and the affective system passes judgment, alerting other centres in the brain. At this stage the functioning is based on intuition rather than from reasoning or observation.