{"paper":{"title":"Why the Unfinished Keeps Returning: Canxianization and the Dynamics of Conscious Priority","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","headline":"A perturbation gains recurrent conscious priority when turned into closure-resistant self-relevant unfinishedness.","cross_cats":["cs.AI"],"primary_cat":"q-bio.NC","authors_text":"Hengjin Cai, Tianqi Cai","submitted_at":"2026-05-09T08:52:04Z","abstract_excerpt":"Some conscious contents disappear after access; others return repeatedly, long after their triggering conditions have ceased. We propose Canxianization as the process by which a perturbation becomes closure-resistant self-relevant unfinishedness and thereby acquires recurrent conscious priority. The theory distinguishes this phenomenon from emotional arousal, memory strength, the Zeigarnik effect, curiosity, prediction error, and intrusive thought. A perturbation becomes canxianized when it is attributed to the self-world boundary, value-marked, blocked from causal or action closure, and metac"},"claims":{"count":4,"items":[{"kind":"strongest_claim","text":"A perturbation becomes canxianized when it is attributed to the self-world boundary, value-marked, blocked from causal or action closure, and metacognitively coupled to the self-model.","source":"verdict.strongest_claim","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C1","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"weakest_assumption","text":"That Canxianization constitutes a distinct mechanism separable from emotional arousal, memory strength, the Zeigarnik effect, curiosity, prediction error, and intrusive thought, and that the proposed indices can measure it independently.","source":"verdict.weakest_assumption","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C2","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"one_line_summary","text":"Canxianization converts self-relevant unfinished perturbations into recurrent conscious priority by blocking causal closure and coupling to the self-model.","source":"verdict.one_line_summary","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C3","attestation":"unclaimed"},{"kind":"headline","text":"A perturbation gains recurrent conscious priority when turned into closure-resistant self-relevant unfinishedness.","source":"verdict.pith_extraction.headline","status":"machine_extracted","claim_id":"C4","attestation":"unclaimed"}],"snapshot_sha256":"e79e8f47920fba7025e4cf2560179ec81d660f1ed5a3c196978454a165a786ef"},"source":{"id":"2605.12543","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":"d878dee9-f434-4850-97ea-549d9676deae","model_set":{"reader":"grok-4.3"},"created_at":"2026-05-14T21:59:40.783848Z","strongest_claim":"A perturbation becomes canxianized when it is attributed to the self-world boundary, value-marked, blocked from causal or action closure, and metacognitively coupled to the self-model.","one_line_summary":"Canxianization converts self-relevant unfinished perturbations into recurrent conscious priority by blocking causal closure and coupling to the self-model.","pipeline_version":"pith-pipeline@v0.9.0","weakest_assumption":"That Canxianization constitutes a distinct mechanism separable from emotional arousal, memory strength, the Zeigarnik effect, curiosity, prediction error, and intrusive thought, and that the proposed indices can measure it independently.","pith_extraction_headline":"A perturbation gains recurrent conscious priority when turned into closure-resistant self-relevant unfinishedness."},"references":{"count":19,"sample":[{"doi":"","year":1988,"title":"Baars, B. J. (1988). A cognitive theory of consciousness. Cambridge University Press","work_id":"4911252e-286e-44d6-8061-acf4219947d1","ref_index":1,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2010,"title":"Brewin, C. R., Gregory, J. D., Lipton, M., & Burgess, N. (2010). Intrusive images in psychological disorders. Psychological Review, 117(1), 210–232","work_id":"1a658509-7647-41ac-8ebd-b5408100df1e","ref_index":2,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2006,"title":"Brosschot, J. F., Gerin, W., & Thayer, J. F. (2006). The perseverative cognition hypothesis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60(2), 113–124","work_id":"c86f9a07-1088-42cc-a9e1-06d9060d87d4","ref_index":3,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2016,"title":"Christoff, K., Irving, Z. C., Fox, K. C. R., Spreng, R. N., & Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2016). Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 17(11), 718–731","work_id":"f081134d-45c4-43c3-9729-738f82d13a19","ref_index":4,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false},{"doi":"","year":2013,"title":"Clark, A. (2013). Whatever next? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 36(3), 181–204","work_id":"fd88d96b-de3d-4952-9166-d3a031e03314","ref_index":5,"cited_arxiv_id":"","is_internal_anchor":false}],"resolved_work":19,"snapshot_sha256":"bc29bb5ec85f529f75f49047e890b0e07f280ca8606bab9c28760e7471558758","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}