PRECONSCIOUS RELATIONAL LATENCY: A TWO-THRESHOLD MODEL INTUITIVE EMERGENCE, RATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION, AND THE EPISTEMIC PROMOTION OF INTUITION

Abstract

PRECONSCIOUS RELATIONAL LATENCY: A TWO-THRESHOLD MODEL OF INTUITIVE EMERGENCE, RATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION, AND THE EPISTEMIC PROMOTION OF INTUITION Author: Cláudio Vicente da SilvaAffiliation: Independent Researcher — Londrina, Paraná, BrazilDate: October 17, 2026 This article proposes the Preconscious Relational Latency (PRL) framework, a theoretical and methodological model for investigating the temporal and functional relationship between the emergence of an intuitive answer and the subsequent conscious reconstruction of the relations that support it. The central hypothesis is that producing an answer and explicitly articulating its underlying relational structure may involve distinct thresholds of cognitive accessibility. The proposed Two-Threshold Model (TTM) formalizes this distinction: an answer may emerge when the accumulated evidence across supporting relations reaches an initial threshold, whereas a complete explanation may require the individual relations to become sufficiently accessible for explicit reconstruction. The framework introduces operational measures, including the Relational Latency Index (RLI), the Emergence–Explanation Lag (Δ), Reconstructive Fidelity (RF), the Confabulation Index (CI), Metacognitive Gain (MG), and Structural Memory Transfer (TI). These measures are intended to connect behavioral performance, temporal dynamics, explanatory accuracy, confidence calibration, and the transfer of relational structures to new problems. The mathematical formulation describes relational evidence as a stochastic accumulation process and proposes testable predictions concerning the number of relations involved, the time required for an answer to emerge, the duration of subsequent explanation, and the fidelity of conscious reconstruction. The article also presents nine predictions with explicit criteria for empirical evaluation and potential refutation, together with a proposed experimental paradigm based on compositional relational learning, novel combinations, structural transfer, controlled verbalization, incubation, and attentional manipulation. Beyond its cognitive and mathematical dimensions, the article addresses the epistemological status of intuition. It distinguishes the subjective experience of certainty from justified knowledge and proposes that intuitive judgments should be evaluated through the fidelity of their reconstruction or through independently established records of reliability within a regular domain. The framework draws connections among philosophy of mind, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, mathematical modeling, metacognition, learning theory, and epistemology. It also identifies potential applications to artificial intelligence, particularly in evaluating the relationship between a system's generated answer and the structural consistency of its subsequent explanation. The manuscript presents a theoretical model and an experimental research program rather than a report of completed empirical validation. Its principal contribution is the formal organization of a testable hypothesis into operational variables, mathematical relations, experimental procedures, and criteria by which the model may be supported, revised, or rejected. Keywords: preconscious relational latency; intuition; cognitive processes; two-threshold model; evidence accumulation; conscious awareness; rational reconstruction; reconstructive fidelity; metacognition; epistemology; mathematical modeling; artificial intelligence. Suggested citation: Silva, Cláudio Vicente da. (2026). Preconscious Relational Latency: A Two-Threshold Model of Intuitive Emergence, Rational Reconstruction, and the Epistemic Promotion of Intuition. Zenodo.