Contradiction risk
A scoring channel in the reinforcement engine that reduces reward when an experience event conflicts with existing high-trust memories. Prevents contradictory or low-quality memories from accumulating strength through Hebbian compounding despite disagreeing with the established knowledge base.
Contradiction risk is one of seven normalized input channels in the reinforcement scoring function, weighted at 10% of the final reinforcement value (as 1 - contradictionRisk). It serves as a quality gate: if a candidate memory contradicts multiple high-trust memories in the associative memory layer, it receives a reduced reinforcement signal regardless of its importance, novelty, or goal relevance. This prevents the Hebbian compounding mechanism from being exploited by a stream of low-quality events that agree with each other but conflict with established knowledge. The critic agent is the primary contributor to contradiction risk scores during arbitration - it retrieves contradiction records and flags inconsistencies before a proposal reaches execution. High contradiction risk can cause a memory to be quarantined or suppressed by the forgetting system rather than accumulated.