Super-Abstraction and Dual-Turn Narrative Architecture: Cognitive Rhythm, Attention Span, and Variable-Amplitude Turns

This project presents a unified theoretical framework for narrative structure by abstracting story progression into a dual-turn architecture, defined by two major turning operations that form the minimal skeleton required for coherent narrative movement. The model demonstrates that both Western three-act theory and Eastern Kiten–Shouten–Ketsu reduce to this same dual-turn configuration when analyzed at the functional level. The work integrates cognitive science to explain why many storytelling traditions independently converge on approximately eight rises and falls of tension in feature-length narratives. A fifteen‑minute cycle of attentional reset aligns with human attention span, making eight-segment rhythm a cognitively natural reference value rather than a prescriptive rule. This insight reframes existing beat systems—such as Save the Cat, Hero’s Journey, and the 8‑sequence method—as medium-specific instantiations of meso-level segmentation nested within the dual-turn skeleton. To accommodate modern storytelling across film, television, animation, games, and serialized media, the paper introduces variable-amplitude turns, a probabilistic model allowing flexible distribution of beats and local reversals. Drawing on Sunzi’s concept of formlessness, the framework emphasizes adaptability: the dual-turn skeleton ensures coherence, while internal dynamics remain fluid and customizable. Overall, this project provides a cross-cultural, cognitively grounded, medium-agnostic foundation capable of explaining both classical narrative forms and contemporary nonlinear or multi-threaded works.