Self-produced signs in decision-making and contextual correlations

We challenge traditional decision theories centered on external stimuli by adopting a historical-cultural perspective that distinguishes between received stimuli and self-produced signs. Our focus is on decision contexts in which self-produced signs are actively generated to support cognition, reflecting its constructive and goal-directed nature. We investigate whether combinations of these signs can give rise to non-classical correlations without invoking artificial superpositions of presented options. This perspective departs from classical, preference-centric models that interpret decisions as the resolution of fixed and pre-existing latent preferences. Instead, we propose a contextual, non-preference-based framework in which choices emerge from the dynamic generation of correlations among self-produced signs. In this view, self-produced signs actively constitute the decision context itself. While outcomes remain locally interpretable within a classical perspective, interactions among locally consistent processes can generate global incoherence. Such incoherence is not accessible at the level of individual cognition. This approach reframes decision-making as an active, context-driven process shaped by the interplay between self-generated signs and situational constraints. By shifting the focus from static preferences to context construction, it provides a novel framework for understanding complex and non-classical patterns in human decision-making beyond traditional models.