The irreducible epistemic atoms underlying the curriculum. 4,828 atoms across 8 types and 2 molecules
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: memory retention drops to approximately 42% within 20 minutes and 33% within 1 hour of initial encoding without rehearsal, demonstrating the biological basis for the capture imperative
Zeigarnik effect: incomplete tasks maintain active cognitive representations that consume working memory resources, producing intrusive thoughts about unfinished work that persist until the task is either completed or captured in a trusted external system
Miller's law: working memory capacity is limited to approximately 7±2 chunks of information, establishing the biological constraint that makes cognitive offloading through externalization necessary for complex thinking
Writing produces 15-20% more ideas than thinking alone: studies on externalization show that the act of writing generates novel connections invisible to internal monologue because linearization forces gap-detection
Context switching costs 10-25 minutes of recovery time per switch: research on task-set reconfiguration shows that switching between cognitively demanding tasks imposes a recovery period before full performance is restored
Attention residue persists for 15+ minutes after task switching: Leroy (2009) demonstrated that cognitive residue from a previous task significantly impairs performance on the subsequent task
Deep work capacity averages 3-4 hours per day for most knowledge workers: sustained focused attention follows a biological depletion curve independent of motivation or discipline
Dunning-Kruger effect: people with low competence in a domain systematically overestimate their ability because the same skills needed to produce correct responses are the skills needed to recognize correct responses
Confirmation bias operates at the perceptual level: Nickerson (1998) review demonstrated that people not only seek confirming evidence but literally perceive ambiguous information as confirming their prior beliefs
Milgram obedience experiments: 65% of participants administered apparently lethal shocks when instructed by an authority figure, demonstrating the power of the compliance instinct to override personal moral judgment
Organ donation default effect: countries with opt-out organ donation have 85-100% consent rates versus 4-27% for opt-in countries, demonstrating that defaults determine behavior far more than preferences
Habit formation requires an average of 66 days: Lally et al. (2010) found that automaticity develops over a median of 66 days, ranging from 18 to 254 days depending on complexity
Implementation intentions double goal achievement rates: Gollwitzer (1999) meta-analysis showed that if-then plans approximately double the probability of goal-directed behavior
Affect labeling reduces amygdala activation by 30-50%: Lieberman et al. (2007) fMRI research showed that putting feelings into words significantly reduces limbic system reactivity
Emotional contagion occurs within milliseconds: Hatfield et al. (1993) demonstrated that facial mimicry and emotional synchronization begin within 50ms of exposure, below conscious awareness thresholds
Post-traumatic growth occurs in 30-70% of trauma survivors: Tedeschi & Calhoun (2004) found that a substantial majority of people report positive psychological changes following highly challenging life circumstances
Redemption narratives predict better life outcomes: McAdams (2006) longitudinal research showed that people who frame difficult experiences as leading to positive outcomes show higher generativity, well-being, and mental health