Question: What is the general principle explaining the numerous ways in which our perceptions are irrational?

My hypothesis: Cognitive biases result directly from the 3-D priors needed to reconstitute a real-seeming world from undersampled sensorimotor input.

Test: Examine cognitive biases for traces of

1. Three-dimensionality

2. Continuity across space and time

3. Bias toward the reference frame of the observer

Refutation: Organize cognitive biases more efficiently along a different coordinate system (e.g. discontinuous, D > 3, other-centered)

(While not a psychologist, my impression is that most cognitive biases are related to continuous approximations like interpolation and extrapolation or to privileging self-perspective. Furthermore, it seems a surprisingly large number of cognitive shortcuts and categorical schemes are consistent with three-dimensional processing, like "Rules of Three").