Magnitude, Timing & Numerical Cognition

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Abstractions about perceived quantity and duration, frequency representation, numerical interference, response-delay reduction, and generalization across stimuli.

5 abstractions in this family — domain-specific abstractions that sit near one another in structural-signature space (k-means over structural-signature embeddings). Each is shown with its short description.

• Delay reduction hypothesis — A choice theory proposing that a stimulus becomes an effective conditioned reinforcer to the extent that it signals a reduction in expected delay to primary reinforcement.
• Frequency format hypothesis — The cognitive hypothesis that people often reason more accurately about uncertainty when probabilities are expressed as natural frequencies with explicit reference classes.
• Numerical Stroop effect — Interference in numerical comparison when an irrelevant physical-size dimension conflicts with digit magnitude, slowing or biasing responses relative to congruent trials.
• Scalar expectancy — A timing model in which an internal pacemaker, accumulator, memory, and decision comparison produce interval judgments with scalar variability.
• Universal law of generalization — Shepard's cognitive hypothesis that generalization probability decreases approximately exponentially with distance between stimuli in an appropriately constructed psychological space.