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Atlas Manual

Camerer & Loewenstein BE / NLP Practitioner Manual

30 terms across 8 themes — every definition in the Atlas sourced from this manual, with executive examples and counter-moves.

30 of 30 terms
Mental Models · Decision
Asian Disease Problem

Tversky & Kahneman's classic: identical outcomes flip from 'risk averse' to 'risk seeking' when framed as lives saved vs. lives lost.

Mental Models · Learning
Change Personal History

Resourcing past memories with the state you needed at the time, so old triggers stop firing the old response.

Mental Models · Learning
Circle of Excellence

Anchor a peak resourceful state to an imagined spot on the floor; step into it on demand before high-stakes moments.

Mental Models · Decision
Constructed Preferences

Preferences aren't retrieved from a stable internal list — they're built on the spot from cues, context, and the elicitation method.

Mental Models · Decision
Context Effects (Choice)

Preference between two options depends on what other options sit beside them — attraction, compromise, similarity effects.

Mental Models · Economics
Endowment Effect (Behavioral)

Owning something raises its valuation — sellers want more to give it up than buyers will pay to acquire.

Mental Models · Markets
Equilibrium Behavior (Experimental)

Subjects often converge to neoclassical predictions only after many rounds of feedback — not on the first try.

Mental Models · Social
Inequity Aversion (Fehr-Schmidt)

People sacrifice payoff to punish unfair distributions — even unfairness that benefits them produces guilt-style discomfort.

Mental Models · Decision
Joint vs. Separate Evaluation

Options judged side-by-side reveal different preferences than the same options judged alone.

Mental Models · Strategy
Level-k Thinking

Players reason a fixed number of steps ahead about what others will do — and rarely beyond level 2 or 3.

Mental Models · Learning
Modeling Excellence

The original purpose of NLP: capture the precise structure of how an exceptional performer does what they do, so it can be transferred.

Mental Models · Learning
New Behavior Generator

Mental rehearsal pattern: see yourself doing the new behavior, refine, step in, run it kinesthetically until it's natural.

Mental Models · Reasoning
NLP Communication Model

Sensory input is filtered through deletion, distortion, and generalization before it becomes the internal state you experience.

Mental Models · Decision
Outcome Frame

Re-orient any conversation from 'what's wrong / whose fault' to 'what do we want and how do we get it.'

Mental Models · Reasoning
Parts Integration

Resolve an internal conflict by treating each side as a 'part' with a positive intent, then negotiating a shared higher outcome.

Mental Models · Reasoning
Perceptual Positions

Three viewpoints on the same situation: self (1st), other (2nd), observer (3rd). Cycle through all three for a complete read.

Mental Models · Learning
Prime Directives of the Unconscious Mind

The NLP claim that the unconscious mind runs the body, stores memory, organizes patterns, and seeks to follow the directives it's given.

Mental Models · Reasoning
Procedural Rationality

Herbert Simon's frame: agents use heuristics that work under real cognitive limits, not impossible global optima.

Mental Models · Social
Public Goods Game

Players choose how much to contribute to a shared pot; selfish theory predicts zero, real humans contribute, and punishment of free-riders sustains cooperation.

Mental Models · Strategy
Quantal Response Equilibrium

A behavioral relaxation of Nash: players choose better strategies more often, but not always — errors are smooth, not binary.

Mental Models · Decision
Quasi-Hyperbolic (β-δ) Discounting

A present-bias kink (β) on top of exponential discounting (δ): immediate rewards get a bonus, all future rewards trade normally.

Mental Models · Decision
Reference Point

The mental zero from which gains and losses are judged. Move it, and the same outcome changes meaning.

Mental Models · Learning
Sensory Acuity

Trained skill of noticing micro-changes — breathing, skin tone, micro-expressions, voice tempo — in real time.

Mental Models · Social
Sleight of Mouth

Robert Dilts's 14 conversational reframing patterns for shifting limiting beliefs in real time.

Mental Models · Learning
State Management

Treat your physiological/emotional state as a controllable variable, not a passive weather report.

Mental Models · Learning
Strategy Elicitation

Reverse-engineering the internal sequence — visual, auditory, kinesthetic — an expert uses to produce a result.

Mental Models · Systems
T.O.T.E. Model

Test → Operate → Test → Exit. Any skill is a loop of testing against a criterion, operating to close the gap, retesting, and exiting when met.

Mental Models · Learning
Time Line Therapy

Tad James's extension of NLP working with how the unconscious organizes past, present, and future spatially to release stuck emotion.

Mental Models · Decision
Well-Formedness Conditions

Criteria for a workable outcome: stated positively, in your control, sensory-specific, ecological, and worth the cost.

Mental Models · Economics
Willingness-to-Accept vs. Willingness-to-Pay Gap

The price at which someone will sell an item systematically exceeds the price they'd pay to buy it.