The PSLC Theoretical Framework (pdf)
We promised there'd be cognitive science and pedagogical synthesis here. Does this offer any help? The framework is billed as an evolving document; the folks at the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center use it to know what kinds of experiments to do next. If you need to cite something, choose from among their research papers.

Aside from looking around the Learnlab site, you can visit CTAT, the technology that got PSLC started.