Concepts
The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types
Perception Automatically Chunks Elements into Clusters
Human perception automatically organizes individual elements into intermediate-level perceptual clusters to reduce cognitive complexity before conscious processing.
Experience Segments into Nested Hierarchical Events
The human brain automatically segments continuous experience into discrete, nested hierarchical events with boundaries determined by changes in goals, locations, and activity patterns.
Concepts Are Situated Simulations, Not Abstract Definitions
Concepts are grounded in sensorimotor simulations within specific situated contexts rather than abstract, context-free definitions stored as symbolic propositions.
Piagetian Equilibration Through Schema Dynamics
Cognitive development occurs through equilibration—the resolution of tension between existing schemas and new experience via assimilation (fitting new information to existing schemas) or accommodation (modifying schemas when assimilation fails sufficiently to produce cognitive disequilibrium).
Flexible Context-Dependent Categorization
Human conceptual structure is a flexible context-dependent system that can simultaneously organize entities along multiple dimensions and construct ad hoc categories on the fly to serve current goals, cutting across stable taxonomies.
Agents are systems defined by perceiving their environment…
Agents are systems defined by perceiving their environment and acting upon it to achieve goals.
Human memory under stress and cognitive load is unreliable…
Human memory under stress and cognitive load is unreliable for executing intended behaviors.
Measurement of behavior changes the behavior being measured…
Measurement of behavior changes the behavior being measured.
Simple decision rules using less information can outperform…
Simple decision rules using less information can outperform complex analytical models in uncertain environments with limited data.
Knowledge that exists only in tacit form degrades without…
Knowledge that exists only in tacit form degrades without detection and cannot be systematically improved.
Mental rehearsal activates the same neural circuits used…
Mental rehearsal activates the same neural circuits used during actual task execution.
People interpret failure as either evidence about…
People interpret failure as either evidence about their fundamental capabilities or as information about what to try next, and this interpretation predicts measurably different outcomes.
The performance of an agent is bounded by the accuracy…
The performance of an agent is bounded by the accuracy of its world model regardless of the sophistication of its decision-making process.
Losses loom larger than equivalent gains in human…
Losses loom larger than equivalent gains in human psychology.
You can design your own cognitive processes rather…
You can design your own cognitive processes rather than simply running on inherited defaults.
Behavior requires an initiating signal to occur…
Behavior requires an initiating signal to occur at a specific moment rather than theoretically at some point.
Behavior is a function of both the person…
Behavior is a function of both the person and their environment.
Event-based prospective memory is easier and more reliable…
Event-based prospective memory is easier and more reliable than time-based prospective memory because the environment itself provides the retrieval cue.
Signal detection involves independent dimensions…
Signal detection involves independent dimensions of sensitivity and specificity.
Emotions manifest as physiological changes in the body…
Emotions manifest as physiological changes in the body (somatic markers) that occur before conscious emotional experience.
Every detection system faces a fundamental tradeoff between…
Every detection system faces a fundamental tradeoff between sensitivity and false alarm rate — catching more real signals necessarily increases false positives.
Repeated false alarms reduce the response to genuine threats
Repeated false alarms reduce the response to genuine threats through psychological conditioning.
The nervous system habituates to repeated, predictable…
The nervous system habituates to repeated, predictable stimuli by withdrawing attentional resources.
The mere presence of other people increases physiological…
The mere presence of other people increases physiological arousal and amplifies dominant behavioral responses.