── ── Mental model
Cognitive Evolution Stages
Most learning models treat acquisition as the final destination. This framework describes it as the starting line of a five-stage process (5阶段11层级) ending in evolution — where Stage 5 output restarts the cycle at a higher level. The diagnostic power is identifying where someone is stuck and what specific transition would unblock them. The most consequential stall is Stage 2→3…
How it works
Output artifact: Stage Map + Capability Gap Analysis + Deliberate Practice Design
· Stage · Core behavior · Typical output · · ------- · --------------- · ---------------- · · 1. Acquire (know-that, analyze, research) · Identifying and absorbing what exists · Literature reviews, fact compilations · · 2. Imitate (copy, adapt, fit-to-context) · Reproducing and adapting existing approaches · Implementations of known methods · · 3. Understand/Apply (compare, trade-off, innovate) · Comparative evaluation and first genuine novelty · Trade-off analyses, novel applications · · 4. Create (new method, distill, elevate) · Generating new methods and distilling principles · New frameworks, original methodologies · · 5. Evolve (perceive→cognize→analyze→understand→evaluate→reflect) · Self-correcting loop that restarts at higher level · Meta-frameworks, self-revising systems ·
1. Label 3 specific recent outputs by stage based on actual behavior, not aspiration. Gate: rate your output. 2. Describe current-stage behavior specifically enough that someone watching you work could confirm it. Gate: falsifiable. 3. Name the ONE cognitive operation marking the Stage N→N+1 transition for your domain. Gate: nameable operation, not "think more creatively." 4. Design deliberate practice: specific behavior, specific frequency, 4-week duration. Gate: not "read more." 5. After 4 weeks: what can you now do that you could NOT do before? If no progress — wrong practice or Stage 1 gap? 6. Stop-rule: All activities Stage 2 for a month with no deliberate comparison = stagnation. Do not call it "working efficiently."
When to use it
- user says 'I understand it but can't apply it,' 'how do I stop just copying other people's work,' 'I can adapt frameworks but can't create new ones,' 'why does my innovation always look like a remix,' or when someone's output is sophisticated adaptation that cannot generate genuinely novel solutions
When not to use it
When the decision is routine and reversible, applying a formal method costs more than it returns.
Worked example
Marie Curie's Scientific Development (1896-1911)
Marie Curie's progression through the five stages is one of the most documented cases in the history of science, with primary sources in her doctoral thesis and Nobel Prize lectures.
Install this skill (free, MIT)
npx skills add deciqAI/knowledge-skills