EVIDENCE BY CHAPTER

Chapter 24: Stabilize Before You Improve

Evidence records connected to this chapter of The Human OS Manual.

The entries below follow the chapter’s printed endnotes into the digital Evidence Map.

The printed notes preserve the source trail attached to the first edition. The digital record adds a current interpretation of what the evidence supports, what it does not establish, and whether anything has changed since publication.

Allostasis includes predictive or anticipatory adjustment to expected demand.

Established operating principles

State System · Adaptation System

Book reference: The body predicts demand and adjusts before conscious interpretation fully arrives., Stabilization depends on predictive regulation, not only conscious control.

Last reviewed: August 11, 2026

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Stress can impair prefrontal functions involved in working memory and top-down cognitive control.

Strong human evidence

State System · Output System

Book reference: Stress can narrow attention, working memory, and top-down cognitive control., Under sustained load, compensatory effort can preserve performance while flexible cognitive control becomes less reliable., Stress can reduce flexibility and make habitual responses feel more available., Stress can narrow flexibility and make familiar responses easier to retrieve.

Last reviewed: August 11, 2026

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Stress can bias behavior toward habitual responding and away from flexible, goal-directed control.

Strong human evidence

Pattern System · State System · Output System

Book reference: Under pressure, the system often retrieves familiar responses before reflection catches up., Stress can reduce flexibility and make habitual responses feel more available., Stress can narrow flexibility and make familiar responses easier to retrieve.

Last reviewed: August 11, 2026

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Reward prediction errors can update the learned value of actions and influence subsequent reward-seeking choices.

Emerging or mechanistic evidence

Pattern System · Output System · Adaptation System

Book reference: Action-outcome learning updates what an action is expected to produce.

Last reviewed: August 11, 2026

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From the book chapter

The book chapter carries the argument. These entries preserve the evidence trail attached to its specific claims.