The iOSE framework

The psychological framework behind Arfur's design choices: how attention is held, how identity forms from stories told over time, and what it costs when both are broken into fragments.

iOSE is a framework for working with attention and orientation, developed by clinical psychologist Eskil Frydenberg, Arfur's Chief Education Officer. It describes a repeatable cycle — pause, presence, orient, next step — and the commitment that technology should return attention rather than take it. The page sets out the research it draws on: attention as three interacting networks, joint attention as a foundation for social cognition, the measurable cost of interruption, narrative identity, and the association between knowledge of family stories, cultural identity and adjustment in children. Each link in the argument is marked for how strongly it is supported, and the societal claim is stated as inference rather than evidence. Arfur has run no controlled studies and makes no clinical claims; iOSE informs design, and is developed as a separate product at iose.io.