The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 2,888 atoms across 3 types and 2 molecules
Human working memory holds approximately 3 to 5 items simultaneously; this limit is architectural and cannot be expanded through training.
Unrehearsed information decays exponentially, losing approximately 42% within 20 minutes and ~67% within 24 hours; this decay rate is a fixed property of human memory architecture.
Cognitive processes can be functionally distributed across external artifacts, tools, and social structures rather than contained solely in individual brains, with external processes constituting genuine parts of cognition itself when they play the same functional role as internal processes.
Metacognition consists of two functionally distinct levels: an object level where cognitive processes occur and a meta level that monitors those processes through upward signals and regulates them through downward control.
Schemas are cognitive structures that organize knowledge at all levels of abstraction by specifying relationships between concepts and guiding information processing.
Human cognition operates through two distinct systems: System 1 (fast, automatic, parallel, effortless pattern recognition) and System 2 (slow, controlled, serial, effortful deliberation), which have fundamentally different operational characteristics and failure modes.