Decision making often exhibits context dependence that challenges classical probability theory. This paper develops a quantum-like extension of the Tug-of-War (QTOW) decision-making model to clarify when such context dependence can be represented by a single minimal internal state. The QTOW construction uses a qutrit internal state, conservation-preserving updates, and measurement-induced disturbance to model decision, learning, and probing operations within one coherent state space.
Within this minimal representation, KCBS-type probing contexts can be constructed, yielding a witness of non-contextual classical non-embeddability. The main claim is not that quantum theory is uniquely or assumption-freely derived from decision making. Rather, a classical reconstruction of the same operation family requires additional contextual memory, history dependence, or an enlarged hidden-state representation. Thus, contextual probability appears as a resource signature of minimal decision dynamics, while quantum probability provides a compact, memory-efficient realization of this structure.
Blogger's Review: This paper offers profound insights into the context dependence of decision-making processes through a quantum model, revealing fundamental differences between classical and quantum theories in decision dynamics. It provides a new perspective on complex decision-making and points to future research directions, particularly in information processing and decision modeling, where the introduction of quantum theory could lead to breakthroughs.