Scientific Foundations of REFLECTOR
REFLECTOR is based on the concept of sensory behavioral economics — a new field combining behavioral economics (Kahneman, Tversky), mental models (Charlie Munger), embodied cognition (Moshe Feldenkrais), and neurobiology of the senses. It uses the Decision Reflection Architecture (DRA) — a five-layer model of the decision-making process.
Decision Reflection Architecture (DRA)
Every decision passes through five layers — from biological impulse to conscious reflection. REFLECTOR intervenes at each of them.
Biological stimulus
Senses register a signal: smell, image, sound. The body reacts before the mind begins to analyze.
Emotional reaction
The stimulus triggers an emotion: fear, excitement, anxiety. Emotion shapes perspective before thought appears.
Heuristic
The mind reaches for a cognitive shortcut: anchoring, availability, confirmation. Fast, but not always accurate.
Mental model
Interpretation through the lens of experience, profession, culture. "Hammer syndrome" — we see what we know.
Conscious reflection
REFLECTOR activates here: questions that help see the process from the beginning and make a conscious decision.
Most AI tools operate at levels 3-4: organizing arguments and reinforcing existing mental models. REFLECTOR goes deeper — to layers 1-2, where the decision truly begins.
7 theses of sensory behavioral economics
The scientific manifesto of REFLECTOR:
Economic decisions begin in the body, not in the mind.
Sensory stimuli (smell, touch, temperature) influence the assessment of risk, gains, and losses.
Cognitive heuristics have a somatic component — the body "knows" before the mind "thinks".
AI reinforces existing heuristics, it does not neutralize them. We need a new type of AI — reflective.
The Feldenkrais method provides tools for observing somatic aspects of decisions.
Munger's mental models enable multi-perspective analysis but need to be supplemented with the body.
Effective decision reflection requires integration: cognition + emotions + body + sensory context.
Three pillars of the method
1. Behavioral Economics
Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky demonstrated that people systematically make cognitive errors. REFLECTOR helps recognize them.
2. Mental Models
Charlie Munger, legendary investment partner of Warren Buffett, developed the concept of a "latticework of mental models". REFLECTOR applies inversion, circle of competence, and multi-perspective thinking.
3. Embodied Cognition
Modern neurobiology confirms that physiological reactions — muscle tension, breathing, heart rate — affect risk assessment and decision quality. REFLECTOR incorporates somatic data into the reflection process, building on the method of Moshe Feldenkrais.
Heuristics and cognitive biases
In the 1970s, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that people do not make decisions in a fully rational way.
In many situations, we use so-called heuristics - fast mental shortcuts that allow us to make decisions in a complex world.
Heuristics are essential for our functioning. Without them, decision-making would be extremely slow and cognitively demanding.
However, these same mechanisms can lead to systematic cognitive errors, such as:
- confirmation bias
- availability heuristic
- anchoring effect
- sunk cost fallacy
- framing effect
Research shows that these errors occur even in highly intelligent and well-educated people.
REFLECTOR detects heuristics across five dimensions:
Cognitive
anchoring, availability, confirmation, framing
Social
authority, group pressure, social proof
Risk
loss aversion, sunk costs, excessive optimism
Specialization
hammer syndrome, professional deformation, circle of competence
Somatic
body signals, tension, breathing, gut feelings
Charlie Munger and mental models
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's investment partner, developed the concept of a "latticework of mental models".
According to Munger, decision wisdom requires knowledge of key models from many fields: psychology, economics, physics, biology, mathematics.
Key Munger thinking tools:
- Inversion - instead of asking "how to succeed?", ask "how to guarantee failure?" and do the opposite
- Circle of competence - know the limits of your knowledge and don't go beyond them
- Man with a hammer syndrome - "to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - avoid professional deformation
- Opportunity costs - every decision means giving up alternatives
- Second-order effects - consider not only direct effects, but also their consequences
"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up."
— Charlie Munger
Moshe Feldenkrais and embodied cognition
Moshe Feldenkrais, physicist and creator of the awareness through movement method, discovered deep connections between the body and cognitive processes.
Contemporary neurobiological research confirms his intuitions: the body stores knowledge and "remembers" experiences in ways inaccessible to the conscious mind.
What this means for decisions:
- Muscle tension can signal internal resistance to a decision
- Shallow breathing often accompanies decisions made under pressure
- "Gut feeling" represents somatic markers - body signals affecting situation assessment
- The way we talk about a decision (pace, voice tension) reveals unconscious emotions
REFLECTOR takes these signals into account, asking not only "what do you think?" but also "what do you feel in your body?".
Prospect Theory
One of the most important achievements of behavioral economics is Prospect Theory, developed by Kahneman and Tversky.
This theory shows that people evaluate gains and losses asymmetrically.
In practice, this means, among other things, that:
- we feel losses more strongly than gains of the same value
- the way a problem is presented (framing) can significantly change the decision
- decisions made under risk often deviate from the classical model of economic rationality
For the development of this research, Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.
Decisions in the age of artificial intelligence
The modern decision-making environment is changing very rapidly.
Artificial intelligence can generate convincing answers, build narratives, and organize arguments. This can be a tremendous support for humans.
At the same time, a new challenge arises:
AI can unconsciously reinforce existing heuristics and cognitive biases.
That is why in the age of AI, developing reflection on the decision-making process becomes particularly important.
The idea of REFLECTOR
REFLECTOR was created as a method supporting decision reflection, combining all three approaches.
Its task is not to provide answers.
Its task is to ask questions that help the user:
- 1notice possible cognitive errors (Kahneman/Tversky)
- 2look at the decision from different perspectives and apply inversion (Munger)
- 3recognize professional deformation - "man with a hammer syndrome" (Munger)
- 4listen to body signals (Feldenkrais)
- 5recognize the influence of sensory context on the decision
- 6make a conscious decision
REFLECTOR does not make decisions for the user. It only helps create conditions for more conscious thinking before a decision.
Research that changed our understanding of decisions
For many years, economics assumed that humans make decisions rationally: analyzing information, comparing options, and choosing the best solution. At the end of the 20th century, psychological research began to challenge this picture.
Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky
In the 1970s, psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky began a series of studies on how people actually make decisions. They showed that in many situations we do not analyze all information rationally. Instead, we use heuristics - fast mental shortcuts that help us make decisions in a complex world.
Heuristics are extremely useful, but they can lead to systematic cognitive errors.
Development of behavioral economics
In subsequent years, research on decision-making processes was developed by, among others:
Richard Thaler - who introduced the concept of "nudge" and studied the impact of choice architecture on decisions. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2017 for his work.
This research showed that human decisions are the result of a complex interaction: information, emotions, situational context, and the way the problem is presented.
Why this research matters today
The modern decision-making world is changing very rapidly. Today, our decisions are influenced not only by information and opinions of other people, but also by artificial intelligence systems that can generate convincing answers and narratives. This makes reflection on the decision-making process even more important.
Author research
The concept of REFLECTOR is also related to research conducted by its author.
Stefan Podedworny, creator of REFLECTOR, is a doctoral student in behavioral economics at the Warsaw School of Economics. In his research, he develops the concept of sensory behavioral economics — a new field combining behavioral economics, neurobiology of the senses, and embodied cognition.
This research focuses on how sensory stimuli — particularly scents — influence risk assessment, gains and losses evaluation, and the decision-making process itself in the context of prospect theory.
REFLECTOR is a practical extension of this reflection: a method that helps you stop for a moment and see your own decision from a broader perspective — considering not just thoughts, but also body, emotions, and sensory context.
One assumption
REFLECTOR is based on one simple assumption:
a good decision starts with a good question.
In a world where getting answers is becoming easier, the right questions are becoming more valuable.
Combining Kahneman's behavioral economics, Munger's mental models, Feldenkrais's embodied cognition, and neurobiology of the senses, REFLECTOR — based on the Decision Reflection Architecture — was created to help us make decisions more consciously.
Scientific sources
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Kahneman, D. & Tversky, A. (1979). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk
- Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases
- Thaler, R. & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
- Munger, C. (2005). Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
- Feldenkrais, M. (1972). Awareness Through Movement
- Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain
- Varela, F., Thompson, E. & Rosch, E. (1991). The Embodied Mind
- Herz, R. (2007). The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell