Human Behavior Research: Evaluating How the Organization, Connection, and Evolution of Prior Knowledge in Long-Term Memory Drives Top-Down Processing

Introduction

Humans often resist change, even when an innovation brings exceptional value and ease to their lives. We have evolved as rapid samplers who need to understand information and make fast decisions to survive, so we prefer relying on prior knowledge and experiences. Change is difficult because it requires time and energy to learn something new or modify an existing routine. Top- down processing describes the way humans perceive the world based on cognition. The human brain inserts meaning and connection based on what it already understands, has experienced, or expects. In other words, the concept of long-term memory (LTM) and prior knowledge drive top- down processing effectively allowing humans to name and store incoming stimuli. This review aims to explain how the human knowledge system, with infinite capacity, functions by explaining the way LTM and prior knowledge are highly organized, intricately interconnected, and constantly evolving. With a deep awareness of how the knowledge processing system operates, designers can leverage the information to create valued, intuitive, and accepted products and services. The remainder of the review will evaluate the Venmo app and how the concept has been adopted based on people’s prior knowledge of money transfers.

3 Themes of LTM and Prior Knowledge Drive Top-Down Processing

Theorists share a consensus on how human memory operates. Norman (2013) describes after the information has moved through the pre-attentive stage and moves to working memory, it is ready to be stored in LTM when it has been paid extra attention or is referenced frequently. He elucidates that since LTM is so expansive with infinite capacity, it must be efficiently organized so the prior knowledge is readily available and easily retrievable. Brod et al. (2013) describes how prior knowledge impacts the cognitive processes vital to learning and retaining new information and converting it to memory. These cognitive processes “form the basis of semantic memory, which is factual knowledge about the world, and episodic memory, which is memory bound in time and place” (Tulving, 1972, as cited in Brod et al., 2013). Brod et al. explains how prior knowledge increases neural activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and hippocampus (HC) leading to increased comprehension, memory, and retrieval (2013). There are various theories proposed to describe the elaborate processes within human memory and how humans store and access knowledge.