Bibliography and methods · 4 min read

Methods, Sources, and Version History

Evidence hierarchy, reproducibility notes, implementation chronology, and citation guidance.

Inside ~Cortisol Checker~ · v1.0 · Moses Sam Paul Johnraj

Quick Answer

The checker’s scoring behavior is grounded in versioned code, tests, and fixtures. External research grounds the surrounding cortisol, stress, and language discussion, but the current lexicon and weights were manually authored and have not been biologically or clinically validated.

Method

This paper reconstructs the development of ~Cortisol Checker~ from primary implementation evidence. Current scoring claims were checked against analysis-engine 0.4.1 source, executed against pinned sample text, and compared with automated calibration and contract tests. Protocol claims were checked against the hosted IoV Spec API and canonical Spec repository. Product-history claims were checked against dated Git commits, repository context, and the working Foundation/Word Wallet Web flow. Scientific context was checked against the external sources listed below.

The Foundation website is a publication and operations surface, not the protocol source of truth.

Evidence hierarchy

Hosted IoV Spec API and canonical Spec repository for protocol grammar and trace claims.
Released checker source, response schema, tests, and fixtures for scoring behavior.
Word Wallet Web contracts and operations records for invocation, identity, consent, and retention behavior.
Dated Git history and repository context for chronology.
Peer-reviewed and authoritative external sources for cortisol physiology, stress response, and language research.
Prior papers for intellectual framing, clearly separated from implemented behavior.

Implementation chronology

Date	Evidence
13 June 2026	Initial local CLI MVP and paste-and-analyze interface
14 June 2026	Public-harm calibration, geopolitical-harm calibration, semantic frames, and safer replies
16 June 2026	Calibration suite, safety-sensitive routing, registry validation, and stable API work
17 June 2026	Schema validation and debug interface
18 June 2026	Protected service endpoint
19 June 2026	Pinned public samples
20 June 2026	Handler contract `0.4.1`
21 June 2026	Working Foundation analysis, identity connection, and participant-authored response loop documented

Reproducibility

The two worked examples use public/fixtures/cortisol-checker-samples-0.4.1.json and the released deterministic analysis engine. The current algorithm lives in the checker repository's scoring rubric, lexicon, and context-frame modules. Safety rules and reply generation are separate services. Automated tests cover calibration ranges, sensitive-response behavior, schema shape, registry validation, and stable snapshots.

External scientific and language sources

These sources ground the surrounding scientific context. The current checker rubric is a separately versioned open research prototype: its categories, phrases, weights, caps, and labels are published for review, but have not yet been validated against a physiological dataset.

Kaur, J., Gandhi, J., & Sharma, S. “Physiology, Cortisol.” StatPearls, updated 2025. NCBI Bookshelf. Used for cortisol physiology, daily rhythm, and HPA-axis boundaries.
Chrousos, G. P., et al. “Stress: Endocrine Physiology and Pathophysiology.” Endotext. NCBI Bookshelf. Used for the regulated stress-system and HPA-axis flow.
Kirschbaum, C., Pirke, K. M., & Hellhammer, D. H. “The Trier Social Stress Test.” Neuropsychobiology 28 (1993): 76–81. doi:10.1159/000119004. Laboratory protocol measuring psychobiological stress responses, including cortisol.
Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E. “Acute Stressors and Cortisol Responses.” Psychological Bulletin 130 (2004): 355–391. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.355. Meta-analysis of 208 studies; used for uncontrollability and social-evaluative-threat context.
Saslow, L. R., et al. “Speaking under Pressure: Low Linguistic Complexity Is Linked to High Physiological and Emotional Stress Reactivity.” Psychophysiology 51 (2014): 257–266. doi:10.1111/psyp.12171. Used as evidence that language features can covary with measured stress reactivity.
Mehl, M. R., et al. “Natural Language Indicators of Differential Gene Regulation in the Human Immune System.” PNAS 114 (2017): 12554–12559. doi:10.1073/pnas.1707373114. Used as evidence that natural-language patterns can correlate with biological processes without implying causal or individual prediction.
Yang, Y.-C., et al. “Automatic Detection of Twitter Users Who Express Chronic Stress Experiences.” Computers, Informatics, Nursing 41 (2023): 717–724. doi:10.1097/CIN.0000000000000985. Used for the feasibility and limits of detecting self-reported stress in social-media language.
Rai, S., et al. “Key Language Markers of Depression on Social Media Depend on Race.” PNAS 121 (2024): e2319837121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2319837121. Used as a generalisation warning for language-based psychological models.

Claim boundaries

The score is not a biological cortisol measurement, diagnosis, medical advice, therapy, or individualized prediction. The VC = W × Vcom equation in the related Observer Attention work remains a research scaffold rather than an established economic law. Phase 1 Word Wallets create no token, payment, ownership, royalty, or financial right.

Project and protocol sources

Citation

Johnraj, Moses Sam Paul. “Inside ~Cortisol Checker~: How a felt signal became a deterministic language analysis, a registered expression, and a path toward Word Wallet Web.” Internet of Value Research Foundation, version 1.0, 2026.

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