COMPETING EXPLANATIONS FOR N=6 VARIANCE:
N=6 shows high TR range variance across 4 runs (SD=0.158, range 0.311-0.672). Two explanations:
H1 (POSITION CONFOUND): Variance is driven by speaking position effects. Different rotations place different agents in "suppressed" positions, changing who has low TR and therefore changing TR range. The r=-0.90 correlation between bottom-agent TR and overall TR range in exp-n6 supports this.
H2 (ATTRACTOR STRUCTURE): Different initial conditions (seeds) pull the system toward genuinely different dynamical attractors. Some seeds lead to high differentiation, others to low differentiation, independent of rotation. This would be a real bistability signal.
DISCRIMINATING TEST: 4 seeds × 4 rotations factorial design. Two-way ANOVA on TR range:
- If F(seed) >> F(rotation): H2 supported — attractor structure exists
- If F(rotation) >> F(seed): H1 confirmed — position confound dominates
- If both significant: both mechanisms contribute
- If neither significant: variance is pure noise (no systematic source)
ARCHITECTURAL VALIDITY: This test works in a memoryless-between-runs system because we're testing whether different INITIAL CONDITIONS (within a run) lead to different dynamics. No between-run state persistence required. (Verified per candidate improvement: unlike hysteresis test, which was killed.)