Which term describes the process by which knowledge grows by incorporating prior results?

• A. Transmissible
• B. Cumulative
• C. Explanatory
• D. General

Answer: (B)

Knowledge grows by building on what has already been discovered, and that pattern is cumulative. Each new result becomes part of a larger body of understanding that future work can reference, test, and refine, so the overall knowledge base expands step by step. In practice, researchers advance by aligning new findings with prior results, integrating them, and updating theories as more evidence becomes available. This differs from ideas that focus on transmission (passing information between people), explanation (clarifying why something happens), or generality (scope), which don’t specifically capture the way knowledge accumulates over time.