A Three-Layer Framework of Narrative Experience: Affective Foundations, Cognitive Reward Structures, and Cultural Forms

This work presents a unified three-layer framework of narrative experience that integrates several of my previous models, including the Emotion Ratio Model, the Reward Structures Model, and earlier research on evolutionary–cognitive genre patterns and historical–cognitive reconstruction. The framework distinguishes three analytically connected layers: (1) deep affective mechanisms grounded in pain, recovery, and meaning; (2) mid-level cognitive reward structures involving external, internal, and narrative-self rewards; and (3) surface-level cultural forms shaped by historical, institutional, and media-specific constraints. By formalizing how deep affective constraints propagate upward into cognitive reward architecture and ultimately into cultural patterns of narrative design, the model explains why certain narrative structures recur across media, why others evolve or collapse, and how intentional deviations generate emotional impact or thematic complexity. This integrated approach reframes earlier models not as isolated accounts but as components of a broader affective–cognitive–cultural system. The framework is intended as a general theoretical foundation for interdisciplinary research on narrative psychology, media structure, and cultural evolution. The mid-level reward architecture developed in my earlier work is retained here as the core of the cognitive layer, but its scope is expanded to include cognitive load, schema formation, and long-range interpretive integration. Likewise, the cultural patterns previously treated as surface-level tendencies are incorporated into a broader account of historical, institutional, and media-specific constraints. Note: In earlier work, “culture” appeared at different analytical levels depending on whether the focus was on normative structures (e.g., social roles, expectations, and institutionalized patterns) or expressive forms (e.g., genres, tropes, and narrative conventions). The unified framework presented here formalizes this distinction: normative aspects of culture are treated as part of the cognitive–affective pathway that shapes reward expectations, while expressive cultural forms are positioned at the surface layer. These two dimensions of culture operate at different analytical scales and can legitimately occupy different layers depending on the purpose of the model. The present framework makes this dual structure explicit and integrates both aspects into a coherent affective–cognitive–cultural system.