Expectation as Standard: A Cross-Modal Real-Time Calibration Mechanism for Human Sensory Judgment

Author Information Author: Baichen Yi Preprint Version 2.0 Affiliation: Independent Researcher, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710000, China ORCID: 0009-0008-6242-7743 Corresponding Author: Baichen Yi Email: ybcbenxin@163.com Conflict of Interest Statement: All authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this work. Copyright License This preprint is distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License, permitting global sharing and redistribution provided that proper attribution is given, the use is non-commercial, and no derivative modifications are made to the original text. Special Authorization Statement: The author expressly authorizes any individual or institution to translate the full text or portions of this paper into other languages. Translated versions must preserve the core logic of the original and indicate the original source and author information. The full license text is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Preprint Statement This is a preprint that has not undergone peer review. Based on cross-modal phenomenological induction and reinterpretation of existing literature, this paper proposes a testable structural hypothesis. All falsifiability conditions and operationalization criteria are presented in §6. Abstract Background: The MFY three-variable steady-state model has been cross-domain validated across psychology, economics, motor skills, AI alignment, mammalian behavior, placebo effects, and other fields. The proposition that "expectation Y is the only legitimate intervention target of the system" has received multiple independent supports. However, these validations have all focused on behavioral and decision-making levels, leaving a more fundamental question unaddressed: Where do the subjective experiential standards of human sensory systems themselves—taste, vision, olfaction, audition, touch, spatial distance perception, proprioception—originate? Methods: Starting from six cross-modal sensory calibration phenomena, and combining the definition of the Y variable in the MFY framework with the M₁→F₁→Y→F₂→M₂ transmission structure, this paper proposes and demonstrates a unified proposition: the subjective judgment standards of all sensory modalities are calibrated in real time by expectation Y. Neural conduction serves as the physical carrier of signals, while Y is the determinant of standards. This paper is fully compatible with existing findings in sensory neuroscience regarding signal transmission mechanisms, and supplements what has long remained unaddressed: where the "judgment standard" comes from after a signal arrives, and how it changes. Results: From six modalities—taste/olfaction (flavor adaptation and cross-cultural dietary experience reversal), touch/pain (tactile adaptation and placebo/nocebo effects), audition (auditory adaptation and soundscape calibration), spatial distance perception (distance judgment calibration in driving/combat), proprioception (body schema calibration in motor skill acquisition), and vision (Y recalibration under irreversible physical changes)—this paper induces six unified characteristics of Y-calibration in sensory systems. The core finding among these six characteristics is that the underlying variable filtered at the Y layer is not the physical attribute of the signal source, but trust level; the cumulative historical consistency between the signal source and the existing Y standard determines the calibration effect. This paper forms cross-validation with the Y/M dual-layer defense mechanism in §4.6 of the first paper, the expectation lock-in theory of the eighth paper, and the source dependence of the expansion coefficient of the tenth paper. It also converges dually with the trust mechanism independently derived from the motor skill acquisition scenario in the tenth paper V2.0. Conclusions: The proposition that "Y is the standard itself" is not a local law in a single domain, but a unified mechanism covering all levels from sensation to cognition to behavior. Real-time Y-calibration of sensory systems provides the most fundamental and pervasive empirical evidence for the MFY framework, elevating "expectation-driven" from a psychological hypothesis to a testable proposition about the infrastructure of the sensory-cognitive system. Keywords: