The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 2,888 atoms across 3 types and 2 molecules
Expertise develops through deliberate practice that builds sophisticated mental representations and enables perceptual differentiation of domain-specific features that untrained observers cannot detect.
Meaning is constructed by receivers using their own mental models rather than transmitted intact from senders, because information contains no inherent meaning—meaning emerges from the interaction between information and context.
Schemas are cognitive structures that organize knowledge at all levels of abstraction by specifying relationships between concepts and guiding information processing.
Mental models have structural correspondence (isomorphism) to the situations they represent, with relationships between model elements mapping onto relationships between real-world elements.
People typically construct a single mental model of a situation and reason from it as if it were complete, without spontaneously generating alternative models.