What question did this study set out to answer?

This paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding human decision validation through neuroscience and computational modeling.

May 28, 2026Open Access

The VALID Framework

Key Points

This paper aims to develop a comprehensive framework for understanding human decision validation through neuroscience and computational modeling.
Proposes a model characterized by five neural validation channels: Verity, Association, Lived Experience, Institutional Knowledge, and Desire.
Introduces the Decision Validation Engine (DVE) for operational measurement of the framework.
Integrates findings with current literature and presents an empirical research program.
Describes the dominance-sufficiency error as a critical failure mode in decision validation.
Explains the pentagonal-geometry contribution and how it relates various validation channels.
Outlines theoretical performance targets for future empirical validation.

Abstract

This paper presents the consolidated theoretical and computational architecture of the VALID framework, a proposed model of human decision validation developed by The Validated Mind Research Lab. The framework characterizes consequential decision-making as the simultaneous operation of five neural validation channels: Verity (V), Association (A), Lived Experience (L), Institutional Knowledge (I), and Desire (D). These channels operate in parallel and compete for behavioral primacy under the influence of context, producing the felt sense of validation that licenses commitment. The paper develops the framework in eight integrated movements. Part I establishes the neuroscientific foundations of the parallel-activation model. Part II proposes that each validator is best represented not as a discrete category but as a continuum with internal structure documented in the existing scholarly literature. Part III introduces the pentagonal-geometry contribution: five interior integrative zones — Conviction, Values, Identity, Purpose, and Trust — each proposed as the joint output of two adjacent validators. Part IV develops what this paper identifies as the framework's central failure-mode claim: the dominance-sufficiency error, the cognitive tendency to mistake the activation of one's dominant validator for the completion of adequate validation. Part V describes the Decision Validation Engine (DVE), the computational instrument that operationalizes the framework for field measurement and that is the subject of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/839,584. Parts VI through VIII position VALID against existing frameworks in judgment and decision-making, present the pre-registered empirical research program, and address advisory implications, limitations, and future research directions. This is a foundational working paper intended as a precursor to peer-reviewed publication. Numerical values and performance targets are theoretical or illustrative pending the pilot studies pre-specified in Part VII.

Read Full Paperexternally

Mark Helpful

Bookmark

Relay

View Full Paper