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Chapter 2 discusses the relevance and potential benefits of the text to the realities of learning system design and configuration. The chapter is presented as an argument in support of the relevance of the work and its perspective on learning. It presents a continuous flow (implicate order), which reflects the structure of the discipline (argumentation). The three-part model of collection, discrimination, and integration into practice is configured into a continuous flow in the argument. This chapter creates interest and expectations in the subsequent discussions, which are reexamined in Chapter 9 to connect expectations with outcomes for the work.

Chapter 1 introduces the science of psychophysics to establish the initial condition and expectations for the work. The chapter begins with an overview of psychophysics, its limitations, and its measurement approaches, which are equivalent to the sensation processes. The science of psychophysics is delineated and differentiated from similar fields of study to discriminate it as a science, which is equivalent to the processes of perception. Finally, this information is compiled into a table, which integrates the information into a cognitive model of the nested systems to be discussed (cognition).

In a psychophysical learning system, this chapter establishes the definition of psychophysics, removes irrelevant information from the conceptual framework, and relates the information to future discussions (immediacy), which creates a flow within the learning process.

Chapter 9 closes the loop with Chapter 2 to demonstrate the methods and techniques that can achieve the goals and objectives presented in Chapter 2. The attributes of the total system are summarized and supported with research that has examined its effectiveness in real-world applications. The attributes of the learning engagement, experience, and environment are discussed and supported with available practical and action research. As in the construction of cognition, this chapter is constructed in a matrixed model where the interactions across categories are explicit from multiple perspectives, which reveals the interactions across the categories of content.

This chapter reviews the strategies, methods, and techniques used in this system of curriculum design to configure effective curricula, which translate the content and structure of a discipline into credible and trustworthy techniques of curriculum design. The impact of these design strategies is discussed as a method to facilitate, promote, and enhance learning through a differentiated design of the curriculum in any discipline.

The systematic design of curriculum presented in this text seeks to provide order and accessibility to the intended learning. The systematic configuration of the dimensions of the curriculum by adapting frameworks from the best evidence of how humans learn as codified in the theories of learning, instruction, and environmental influences achieves this goal. This approach removes the intellectual, psychological, and sociologic impediments to learning so that learners can achieve the intended goals without having to decipher the intended learning, reconcile differences between the articulated learning and the learning strategies, and overcome the social constraints imposed by a dissonant or hostile learning environment. The goal of a curriculum in this process is to structure, facilitate, and support the learning experience through evidence-based curriculum design.

The theories adapted as design templates represent the collective intelligence of the profession and the differences in perspective affirmatively differentiate the structure and processes of learning to configure the dimensions of a curriculum to align with the intellectual structure of the discipline (Gardner, 1999). This deliberate and disciplined configuration of the curricular dimensions strives to develop an “ideal” curriculum, which optimizes engagement with learning to ensure intellectual accessibility, promotes learning achievement through effective instructional processes, and enhances the learning performance of the learner by capitalizing on the drivers and constraints to learning generated by the structure of the learning environment. Collectively, these strategies seek to align the psychophysics of the human learning process with the structure and intended learning of each discipline.

Chapter 4 presents the research into the attributes of a stimulus, which the brain uses to construct a perception of the external stimulus. The processes used in all five senses are examined and compiled into a collective model of the processes the perceptual system uses to discriminate and understand an external stimulus. While there are many commonalities across the senses, the structure of the discipline (energy) each system processes yields unique insights into the processes of the total system.