Research

The Somatic Signal Log: A Calibration Tool for Intuitive Research

Published 2026-08-24 · Updated 2026-08-24

Evidence status: Decision-method guide; not a completed investigation or final validation.

The decision this guide supports

which record is sufficient to distinguish prediction from reconstruction

Why the problem is difficult

The article-specific identification challenge is whether the question “which record is sufficient to distinguish prediction from reconstruction” can be resolved using timestamp, target, raw sensation, interpretation, confidence, alternatives, outcome, scoring, misses, and revisions, rather than merely restated in new language.

A falsifier-first workflow

• Define the decision precisely: which record is sufficient to distinguish prediction from reconstruction.
• Build a source and data ledger around timestamp, target, raw sensation, interpretation, confidence, alternatives, outcome, scoring, misses, and revisions.
• Compare the inherited route with a mechanistically distinct alternative and a constraint-based null.
• Actively search for the strongest counterevidence relevant to this decision, including boundary cases and prior failures.
• Run the lowest-cost discriminating challenge: lock the record before outcome access and audit whether any field was changed later.
• Record pursue, reframe, or stop, the confidence level, the evidence ceiling, and who owns downstream validation.

Decision criteria

• Decision impact: would the result materially change the choice about which record is sufficient to distinguish prediction from reconstruction?
• Evidence fit: does the available evidence—timestamp, target, raw sensation, interpretation, confidence, alternatives, outcome, scoring, misses, and revisions—directly address the decision rather than merely correlate with it?
• Discrimination: does the preferred route predict an outcome a credible alternative does not?
• Robustness: does the ranking survive the challenge “lock the record before outcome access and audit whether any field was changed later”?
• Validation boundary: is the conclusion no stronger than the available sources, data and computation?

Supporting evidence

timestamp, target, raw sensation, interpretation, confidence, alternatives, outcome, scoring, misses, and revisions

Counterevidence

For this decision, a result from “lock the record before outcome access and audit whether any field was changed later” that reverses or flattens the ranking must remain visible even when it is commercially inconvenient.

Computation

Here computation earns its place only if it changes the choice about which record is sufficient to distinguish prediction from reconstruction or exposes why the available evidence cannot resolve it.

Fastest falsifier

lock the record before outcome access and audit whether any field was changed later

When to stop or reframe

A decision-specific stop trigger is failure of the challenge “lock the record before outcome access and audit whether any field was changed later” without an independently supported alternative mechanism.

Evidence ceiling

A log improves provenance but does not eliminate selection effects, cue leakage, or ambiguous scoring.

Sources and starting points

• Dunn et al.: The Somatic Marker Hypothesis, a Critical Evaluation — A critical review of evidence, alternative explanations, causal ambiguity, and conceptual limits surrounding the somatic marker hypothesis.
• Critchley and Garfinkel: Visceral Afferent Signalling and Stimulus Processing — A review of human evidence that autonomic and visceral signals can shape cognition, emotion, attention, and memory.
• Bowers et al.: Intuitive Decision Making as a Gradual Process — An fMRI study treating intuition as an initially non-verbal impression of coherence that can gradually become explicit.
• Zamariola et al.: Heartbeat Counting Scores Are Problematic — A large-sample analysis showing why apparent interoceptive performance can be structurally confounded and misinterpreted.
• Elosegi et al.: Reassessing Confidence Improves Metacognition — Experimental evidence that a second confidence judgment can reduce metacognitive noise, supporting deliberate reappraisal rather than unquestioned certainty.
• OSF Registries — Additional authoritative starting point selected for this decision area; applicability must be checked against the precise question.
• NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy — Additional authoritative starting point selected for this decision area; applicability must be checked against the precise question.

Continue the decision journey

1. What Is Somatic Decoding? From Body Signal to Testable Hypothesis
2. Somatic Decoding vs Gut Feeling: The Difference Is the Protocol
3. A Blind Protocol for Somatic Decoding
4. Failure Modes of Somatic Decoding: Projection, Arousal, and Hindsight

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Frequently asked questions

What decision does “The Somatic Signal Log: A Calibration Tool for Intuitive Research” help make?

It supports a bounded decision about which record is sufficient to distinguish prediction from reconstruction. The framework keeps alternatives, evidence, counterevidence, uncertainty, and the fastest falsification test visible.

What is the fastest useful test?

lock the record before outcome access and audit whether any field was changed later

Can computation validate the final scientific claim?

No. A log improves provenance but does not eliminate selection effects, cue leakage, or ambiguous scoring. Computation can prioritize and eliminate directions; final validation remains with the appropriate domain methods and accountable specialists.

When should the project stop or reframe?

Stop calling the output a decoded signal when the raw sensation and interpretation were not recorded separately, the scoring rule was chosen after the result, cue leakage cannot be excluded, or performance fails prospective and blinded comparison. Preserve the experience as a research observation, not a validated ability.