AIM Framework glossary
Gap Behaviour Test
Canonical definition
The Gap Behaviour Test is the diagnostic test that reads the Lead of an Individual's engagement in a domain from what the Individual does during an interval in which recognition in that domain is absent: an I-led Individual continues the practice, and an M-led Individual lets it lapse or seeks an alternative audience.
Explanation
The Gap Behaviour Test is the Audience-Removal Test carried across an interval of conduct instead of posed as a counterfactual. When recognition stops, the input M draws from others' reactions stops with it, and what remains on M's side is the Individual's attenuated observation of their own behaviour (Chapter 4, Section 4.4.9.1) and any imagined audience. I's inputs are untouched, because cognition continues in private (Chapter 7, Section 7.4.2.2). The comedian who writes jokes nobody hears and the musician who composes in private read as I-led. The Individual whose output dries up, or who turns to controversy or a new high visibility platform unrelated to the craft, reads as M-led. A lapse alone does not discriminate, because an A-driven cause such as illness or the need for income produces one too, so the M reading requires the turn toward a new audience, or the A causes excluded. The Gap Behaviour Test reads the Lead (see Lead-Tag-Last Heuristic), not the full composition, and asks whether the practice continues, not whether it continues at the same intensity.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Diagnostic. Falsifiable prediction (Chapter 7, What Would Falsify This?, criterion 7).