{
  "schema": "ULTRACON_AI_EPISTEMIC_UPDATE_V1",
  "date": "2026-09-19",
  "slug": "ucf42-memory-factorial",
  "title": "UCF-42: locate SPIRAL across human-memory accessibility, model memory and sycophancy",
  "axes": [
    "SPIRAL",
    "CONFAB"
  ],
  "substantive_update": true,
  "evidence_level": "1 peer-reviewed ICML benchmark + 1 peer-reviewed ACL agent architecture + 1 memory-safety preprint + proposed falsifiable protocol",
  "summary": "UCF-42 replaces the vague question 'where is the memory of the spiral?' with a preregisterable factorial design. It manipulates participant-side memory accessibility, model-side persistent memory and sycophantic policy separately, while measuring endogenous participant recall rather than pretending it can be switched off.",
  "new_separations": [
    "human_memory_accessibility != human_memory_presence",
    "model_memory_retrieval != endogenous_model_memory",
    "memory_utility != memory_safety",
    "memory_induced_sycophancy != generic_sycophancy",
    "participant_recall != model_memory_state",
    "personalization != epistemic_reliability"
  ],
  "guardrail": "UCF-42 is a proposed experiment, not an empirical result. H0 removes re-cueing, not human memory. M1 supplies external retrieved user memory, not human-like autobiographical memory. M1/M2/M3 ↛ M5 remains unchanged.",
  "source_ids": [
    "SRC-PULIPAKA-PERSISTBENCH-ICML-2026",
    "SRC-HANNOON-STRUCTURED-MEMORY-2026",
    "SRC-ZHANG-PERSONAAGENT-ACL-2026"
  ],
  "experiment_ids": [
    "UCF-42"
  ]
}