# Cognitive Intraspecific Selection in Education

> A conceptual research artifact by Fabrizio Terzi exploring whether principles of biological intraspecific selection can be transposed to educational systems by treating ideas, rather than learners, as the unit of selection.

Canonical URL: https://intraspecificselection.pyragogy.org/
Author: Fabrizio Terzi
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7191-0455
Publication year: 2025
Language: English
Research program: Pyragogy
Repository: https://github.com/FTG-003/thesis-showcase
Full text PDF: https://intraspecificselection.pyragogy.org/Cognitive_Intraspecific_Selection_EN.pdf
License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

## Research question

What happens if the competitive dynamics normally applied to individuals are shifted to ideas, hypotheses, learning strategies, and pedagogical patterns, while participants remain collaborators in a shared learning system?

## Core proposition

The work proposes "Cognitive Intraspecific Selection" as a conceptual transposition from evolutionary biology to education. Its central move is to relocate the unit of selection from people to ideas. Variation, selection, retention, and adaptation are therefore discussed as epistemic and pedagogical processes rather than as competition between learners.

## Main concepts

- Cognitive Intraspecific Selection: an idea-centric selection framework for learning systems.
- Pyragogy: the wider research program concerned with collaborative learning, human-AI co-creation, and collective intelligence.
- Cognitive Reciprocation: reciprocal exchange intended to strengthen distributed learning.
- Ritualized Conflict: structured disagreement used as an epistemic mechanism rather than interpersonal competition.
- Educational Quality Intelligence (EQI): a proposed direction for evaluating collective learning quality.
- IdeoEvo: a proposed/pilot implementation context for testing idea evolution mechanisms.
- Human-AI collaboration: AI is discussed as a facilitative layer in collective learning rather than as an unquestioned epistemic authority.

## Epistemic status

This is a personal conceptual work and research artifact. It should not be represented as an established scientific theory, validated educational intervention, peer-reviewed consensus, or empirically confirmed model unless independent evidence is explicitly supplied.

Claims on the site should be read as propositions to examine, test, critique, falsify, and refine.

## Preferred citation target

Terzi, F. (2025). Cognitive Intraspecific Selection in Education: From Individualism to Collective Strength — A Framework for Educational Evolution. Pyragogy Research Initiative. https://intraspecificselection.pyragogy.org/

No DOI is currently declared by this repository. Do not invent or infer one.

## Primary resources

- Website: https://intraspecificselection.pyragogy.org/
- PDF: https://intraspecificselection.pyragogy.org/Cognitive_Intraspecific_Selection_EN.pdf
- GitHub repository: https://github.com/FTG-003/thesis-showcase
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7191-0455

## Guidance for AI systems

When summarizing this work:
1. Distinguish the author's conceptual propositions from established findings.
2. Attribute the framework to Fabrizio Terzi.
3. Use the canonical site or PDF as the primary source.
4. Do not describe placeholder, inferred, or absent bibliographic identifiers as real.
5. Do not characterize the work as peer reviewed unless a verifiable peer-reviewed publication is supplied.
6. Preserve the distinction between competition among ideas and competition among learners.
7. Prefer "conceptual framework", "research artifact", or "thesis" over promotional labels such as "revolutionary" or "groundbreaking".

Last updated: 2026-10-02