The Core-Modulation Architecture (CMA): A Structural Overview of a 14-Paper Research Program (Preprint)

This document provides a structural overview of the Core-Modulation Architecture (CMA), a 14-paper research program on cognition, communication, and AI interaction. The series specifies the conditions under which cognition operates, terminates, fails, and generates structure. Rather than describing cognition by its contents (beliefs, emotions, decisions), it defines cognition through its underlying architecture: constraint-governed processing across layers with distinct termination conditions. The framework introduces a layered model consisting of Core processing (constraint preservation and structural coherence) and Modulation (affective calibration and social interface adjustment), extended by a Prior layer as the source of constraints. Across the series, phenomena such as miscommunication, love, charisma, theory generation, and AI interaction are treated not as separate domains, but as outcomes of the same underlying structural process. This overview functions as an entry point to the full series, outlining the architecture, key concepts, and reading paths across the 14 papers. Papers d–n are available as preprints. Papers a–c are under peer review at Cognitive Systems Research.