Cognitive Drive Architecture

Cognitive Drive Architecture (CDA) is a proposed structural field within cognitive psychology that investigates the internal system configurations that enable, sustain, or inhibit cognitive effort. Unlike traditional models that emphasize motivational intention, emotional state, or behavioral output, CDA focuses on the structural conditions necessary for Drive to emerge at all.

CDA does not explain why individuals value certain goals or how they perform tasks once engaged. Instead, it addresses a more foundational layer of inquiry: what internal alignments must be present for goal-directed effort to begin, persist, or destabilize in real time.

The core theory that defines and operationalizes CDA is Lagunian Dynamics, a first-principles structural model that formalizes Drive as an emergent property of six internal variables, distributed across three functional domains. These variables belong to Lagunian Dynamics specifically and are used to define CDA’s field-level scope by differentiating it from trait-based or content-driven psychological theories.

This course introduces CDA as a field through the lens of Lagunian Dynamics, detailing its variables, domain architecture, the Drive Equation, and its empirical and applied implications.

Temporal curve of Drive generation and decline across the three Cognitive Drive Architecture (CDA) domains.

Learning Objectives

This course is designed to help learners:

  • Understand the scope and structural identity of Cognitive Drive Architecture as a distinct field in cognitive psychology.
  • Explain how Lagunian Dynamics defines the internal architecture of effort within the CDA field.
  • Describe the six structural variables (Primode, CAP, Flexion, Anchory, Grain, Slip) introduced by Lagunian Dynamics.
  • Interpret the functional roles of the Ignition, Tension, and Flux domains in shaping Drive.
  • Analyze the structure and implications of the Drive Equation.
  • Identify common effort breakdowns as patterns of variable misconfiguration.
  • Apply CDA-informed reasoning to educational, clinical, technological, and performance contexts.

Modules

See also

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