The Universal & Atomic Elements of Organization
A falsifiable scientific theory proposing that the same irreducible structures organize both thought and reality — from the quantum to the social scale.
O-Theory proposes that four irreducible structures — Distinctions, Systems, Relationships and Perspectives (DSRP) — form the universal grammar of organization. Rather than being merely useful ways of thinking, these structures are hypothesized to be the atomic elements from which every organized phenomenon emerges, whether in cognition, biology, physics, mathematics, society, or the cosmos.
| D | S | R | P |
| Distinctions | Systems | Relationships | Perspectives |
| Identity ↔ Other | Part ↔ Whole | Action ↔ Reaction | Point ↔ View |
| D := (i ↔ o) | S := (p ↔ w) | R := (a ↔ r) | P := (ṗ ↔ v) |
This is a living scientific evidence compendium: an open, continually evolving collection of independent empirical research, formal theory, mathematical proofs, cross-disciplinary analyses, applications, critiques, and proposed falsifications. Every entry is included because it supports, refines, challenges, or attempts to falsify the theory.
Scientific theories are strengthened not only by evidence that confirms their predictions, but also by surviving attempts to falsify them. This compendium brings both together: independent evidence from researchers who were not testing DSRP and proposed counterexamples evaluated against the formal theory.
One counterexample is enough to falsify O-Theory. Until then, the question remains: do the same four structures organize everything from quantum systems to human thought?
Independent convergence is one of the strongest forms of scientific evidence because researchers arrive at the same conclusion while investigating different questions for different reasons.
The number is not the point. Researchers in different fields, studying different questions with different methods, repeatedly arrived at the same structural predictions—almost always without testing DSRP or using its language.
Try a different term or clear the filters.
This compendium began as the peer-reviewed literature review “A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition,” published in the Journal of Systems Thinking with 109 studies. That paper is the peer-reviewed foundation. What you see here is its living, continuously updated version . New studies are checked before they are added, and the collection now holds and keeps growing. Open any card to see what the researchers found, why it bears on DSRP, and where the original review discusses it, the fuller account.
The collection is updated continuously, so the citation carries the date you consulted it rather than a study count — the count changes weekly, and putting it in the reference would make the same collection look like a different work to everyone who cites it. To cite a single claim or study, use its own address: every one has a permanent link.
This is the adversarial half of the compendium. Where the evidence track asks what converges on DSRP, this one asks what would end it: a single organized phenomenon whose structure needs a fifth pattern, a ninth element, or a fifth structural dynamic. It holds written up from candidates across territories, and resolutions — the general answers those cases settle against. Every case is published whether it held or failed, including the ones still open.
Cite this rather than the evidence collection when the point is what survived attack. The two are separate works with separate addresses: one asks what converges on the theory, the other asks what would end it, and a reference to the first does not support a claim about the second. Case and resolution numbers change when the record is revised, so cite a case by its own permanent link rather than by number.
This collection is meant to keep growing. Send us a study, paper, book or critique that bears on DSRP, whether it supports the theory or cuts against it, and we will read it and decide whether it belongs.
Authors Peterson and Skow-Grant
Year 2003
Publisher The Psychology of Learning and Motivation
Discipline Neuroscience
Read it at the publisher 10.1016/s0079-7421(03)01001-6
How do memory and learning work with figure-ground perception?
Forming distinctions using borders is a quick way to recall a memory.
Visual distinctions through the brain's organization of boundaries are fundamental to human cognition and functioning.
C.1: Figure-Ground Peterson and Skow-Grant 2003 discussed how memory and learning work with figure-ground perception. Figure-ground assignment occurs when, “two regions share a common border.” It is typical for humans to think that one region is perceived as being shaped by the border (or identifying the figure), while the other region is perceived as shapeless, and typically continues behind the figure as the background (this is the “other”). An example of this is shown in Figure 9.
They found that in order to access memories about the figure-ground assignments, the prompt had to be the figure, not the ground. Using Gestalt principles, they reasoned that in order to be able to perform the process of memory matching, that prior, innate organization was necessary. Gestalt psychologists say that, “figure assignment is determined by any of a number of ‘‘configural’’ cues that can operate without accessing memory.” Border assignment is incredibly helpful for the process of visual Gestalt grouping. This includes past experience with borders. Perterson and Skow-Grant write that, “a single past experience with a border is sufficient to establish a memory that is accessed the next time the border is encountered suggests that memories of object structure are remarkably plastic.” They hypothesized that exploring the nature of border assignment (i.e., identity-other Distinctions) will further the research in this area. Forming Distinctions using borders is shown in this paper to be a surprisingly quick and fundamental tool for recalling memories associated with the figure formed using the border. Border assignment of visual stimuli is something humans (and other species) are doing every single day, all day long. This act of visually Distinguishing through boundary formation is fundamental to the brain and its processing of information into meaningful concepts.
Patterns it shows D
How to cite this Peterson and Skow-Grant (2003). Memory And Learning In Figure–Ground Perception. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation.