c_symm (Symmetry-based Coherence Measure)

A mathematical measure that assigns life=1 to connected symmetrical subsets and 0 otherwise, used as a first approximation for wholeness.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Findings (1)

finding

c_symm fails to identify certain perceived centers (e.g., segment BWBB in pattern BWB...) and overestimates others.
contradicts
Limitation of the symmetry measure, showing it is only an approximation to the true wholeness.

Concepts (1)

concept

Wholeness
implements
Alexander's core concept rejecting the idea that a whole consists of parts; instead, a whole makes its parts (called 'centers').

Datasets (1)

dataset

35 Black-and-White Strip Patterns
uses
The set of 35 small black-and-white patterns used in the 1960s Harvard experiments to measure coherence and perception of wholeness.

Conceptual bridges

2-hop · via this method's ideas

Where ideas in this method connect to the rest of the corpus — the same concept, an analogy, or a restatement elsewhere.

Wholeness
~Citta· buddhist

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

c_symm measure predicts the experimentally determined rank order of coherence for 35 patterns with high accuracy.finding0.865
Quantitative result supporting the idea that local symmetry counting approximates perceived life in visual patterns.
Configuration coherence can be measured by counting locally symmetric sub-configurations; this measure shows strong agreement with cognition and perception experiments.finding0.771
Quantifiable measure linking structural properties of configurations to human perception, supporting the mathematical reality of wholeness.
Coherenceconcept0.768
A property that makes a segment of space stand out as a center; determined by symmetry, connectedness, convexity, etc.
Weighted symmetry measure (by segment length) correlates less well with coherence than unweighted local symmetry countfinding0.758
Finding that giving extra points to longer symmetrical segments reduces correlation with experimentally measured coherence, showing large symmetries contribute little extra; what matters more is the number of smaller local symmetries
Perceived coherence of patterns is an objective measure, not idiosyncratic or subjective—people agree on relative coherence regardless of experimental taskfinding0.747
Finding that relative coherence rankings remain constant across different people and across different cognitive processing tasks (description, memorization, tachistoscopic recognition), establishing coherence as an objective feature of cognitive processing
Number of local symmetries correlates almost perfectly with perceived cognitive coherence across 35 strip patternsfinding0.745
The key experimental finding: the number of subsymmetries (locally symmetrical connected segments) in a pattern predicts its perceived coherence; most coherent strips have 9 subsymmetries, least coherent have 5; the measure correlates almost perfectly with combined experimental rank order
Projections onto the Assistant Axis could serve as a real-time measure of model coherence in deployment—a quantitative signal for when models are drifting from their intended identityclaim0.725
Proposed future application of the Assistant Axis
Coherence Maximizationconcept0.723
The functional role consciousness plays: minimizing constraint violations between simultaneously active partial models of reality