Quantum cognition
Encyclopedia
Quantum cognition is an emerging field which applies the formalism of quantum theory
to model cognitive phenomena such as human memory, concepts and conceptual reasoning, human judgment
, and decision making
. The field clearly distinguishes itself from the Quantum mind
as it is not reliant on the hypothesis that there is something quantum mechanical about the brain.
Quantum cognition uses only the mathematical basis of quantum theory to inspire and formalize models of cognition that are superior to models based on traditional probability theory
. ``Superior” means a closer fit to empirical data and/or increased explanatory power. The field focuses on modeling phenomena in cognitive science
which have stubbornly resisted traditional modeling techniques or where traditional models seem to have reached a barrier (e.g., human memory). A few brief examples are provided below.
Human probability judgments – Quantum probability provides a new way to explain human probability judgment errors including the conjunction and disjunction errors. A conjunction error occurs when a person judges the probability of a likely event L and an unlikely event U to be greater than the unlikely event U; a disjunction error occurs when a person judges the probability of a likely event L to be greater than the probability of the likely event L or an unlikely event U. Quantum probability theory is a generalization of Bayesian probability
theory because it is based on a set of von Neumann axioms that relax some of the classic Kolmogorov axioms. The quantum model introduces a new fundamental concept to cognition—the compatibility versus incompatibility of questions and the effect this can have on the sequential order of judgments. Quantum probability provides a simple account of conjunction and disjunction errors as well as many other findings such as order effects on probability judgments
Concepts – Concepts are basic cognitive phenomena, which provide the content for inference, explanation, and language understanding. Cognitive psychology has researched different approaches for understanding concepts including exemplars, prototypes, and neural networks
, and different fundamental problems have been identified, such as the experimentally tested non classical behavior for the conjunction and disjunction of concepts, more specifically the Pet-Fish problem or guppy effect, and the overextension and underextension of typicality and membership weight for conjunction and disjunction. By and large, quantum cognition has drawn on quantum theory in three ways to model concepts.
Human memory – Speculation that there may be something quantum-like about the human mental lexicon began with “Spooky Activation at Distance” formula which attempted to model the intuition that when a word’s associative network is activated during study in memory experiment, it behaves like a quantum-entangled system.
. Initial ideas for applying quantum formalisms to cognition first appeared in the 1990s by Diederik Aerts, Harald Atmanspacher, Robert Bordley, and Andrei Khrennikov (see additional reading). Ten years later, there appeared many more detailed empirical applications (see additional reading). A special issue on “Quantum Cognition and Decision” appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Psychology (2009, vol 53.), which planted a flag for the field. Two books closely related to quantum cognition were recently published by Khrennikov (2010) and Ivancivic and Ivancivic (2010), and a new book on quantum cognition and decision is being prepared by Busemeyer and Bruza. The first Quantum Interaction workshop was held at Stanford in 2007 organized by Peter Bruza, William Lawless, C. J. van Rijsbergen, and Don Sofge as part of the 2007 AAAI Spring Symposium Series. This first workshop was followed by workshops at Oxford (England) in 2008, Saarbruken (Germany) in 2009, and most recently at the 2010 AAAI Fall Symposium Series held in Washington DC. The next workshop will take place in Aberdeen, Scotland 26–29 June 2011. Tutorials also were presented annually beginning in 2007 until 2009 at the meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Quantum theory
Quantum theory may mean:In science:*Quantum mechanics: a subset of quantum physics explaining the physical behaviours at atomic and sub-atomic levels*Old quantum theory under the Bohr model...
to model cognitive phenomena such as human memory, concepts and conceptual reasoning, human judgment
Judgment
A judgment , in a legal context, is synonymous with the formal decision made by a court following a lawsuit. At the same time the court may also make a range of court orders, such as imposing a sentence upon a guilty defendant in a criminal matter, or providing a remedy for the plaintiff in a civil...
, and decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
. The field clearly distinguishes itself from the Quantum mind
Quantum mind
The quantum mind or quantum consciousness hypothesis proposes that classical mechanics cannot explain consciousness, while quantum mechanical phenomena, such as quantum entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain's function, and could form the basis of an explanation of...
as it is not reliant on the hypothesis that there is something quantum mechanical about the brain.
Quantum cognition uses only the mathematical basis of quantum theory to inspire and formalize models of cognition that are superior to models based on traditional probability theory
Probability theory
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
. ``Superior” means a closer fit to empirical data and/or increased explanatory power. The field focuses on modeling phenomena in cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
which have stubbornly resisted traditional modeling techniques or where traditional models seem to have reached a barrier (e.g., human memory). A few brief examples are provided below.
Examples
Decision making – Suppose a person is given a chance to play the following gamble twice: an even chance to win $200 or lose $100. If they think they won the first play, or alternatively if they think they lost the first play, then the majority chooses to play again on the second round. Given these preferences, according to the sure thing principle of rational decision theory, they should also play the second round even if they don’t know or think about the outcome of the first round. Yet the majority of people do just the opposite in the latter case. This finding violates the law of total probability, yet it can be explained as a quantum interference effect in a manner similar to the explanation for the results from two-hole experiments in physics.Human probability judgments – Quantum probability provides a new way to explain human probability judgment errors including the conjunction and disjunction errors. A conjunction error occurs when a person judges the probability of a likely event L and an unlikely event U to be greater than the unlikely event U; a disjunction error occurs when a person judges the probability of a likely event L to be greater than the probability of the likely event L or an unlikely event U. Quantum probability theory is a generalization of Bayesian probability
Bayesian probability
Bayesian probability is one of the different interpretations of the concept of probability and belongs to the category of evidential probabilities. The Bayesian interpretation of probability can be seen as an extension of logic that enables reasoning with propositions, whose truth or falsity is...
theory because it is based on a set of von Neumann axioms that relax some of the classic Kolmogorov axioms. The quantum model introduces a new fundamental concept to cognition—the compatibility versus incompatibility of questions and the effect this can have on the sequential order of judgments. Quantum probability provides a simple account of conjunction and disjunction errors as well as many other findings such as order effects on probability judgments
Concepts – Concepts are basic cognitive phenomena, which provide the content for inference, explanation, and language understanding. Cognitive psychology has researched different approaches for understanding concepts including exemplars, prototypes, and neural networks
Neural Networks
Neural Networks is the official journal of the three oldest societies dedicated to research in neural networks: International Neural Network Society, European Neural Network Society and Japanese Neural Network Society, published by Elsevier...
, and different fundamental problems have been identified, such as the experimentally tested non classical behavior for the conjunction and disjunction of concepts, more specifically the Pet-Fish problem or guppy effect, and the overextension and underextension of typicality and membership weight for conjunction and disjunction. By and large, quantum cognition has drawn on quantum theory in three ways to model concepts.
- Exploit the contextuality of quantum theory to account for the contextuality of concepts in cognition and language and the phenomenon of emergent properties when concepts combine
- Use quantum entanglementEntanglementEntanglement may refer to:* Quantum entanglement* Orientation entanglement* Entanglement * Entanglement of polymer chains, see Reptation* Wire entanglement...
to model the semantics of concept combinations in a non-decompositional way, and to account for the emergent properties/associates/inferences in relation to concept combinations - Use quantum superpositionQuantum superpositionQuantum superposition is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics. It holds that a physical system exists in all its particular, theoretically possible states simultaneously; but, when measured, it gives a result corresponding to only one of the possible configurations.Mathematically, it...
to account for the emergence of a new concept when concepts are combined, and as a consequence put forward an explanatory model for the Pet-Fish problem situation, and the overextension and underextension of membership weights for the conjunction and disjunction of concepts.
Human memory – Speculation that there may be something quantum-like about the human mental lexicon began with “Spooky Activation at Distance” formula which attempted to model the intuition that when a word’s associative network is activated during study in memory experiment, it behaves like a quantum-entangled system.
History
There is a short, but significant history of applying the formalisms of quantum theory to topics in psychologyPsychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. Initial ideas for applying quantum formalisms to cognition first appeared in the 1990s by Diederik Aerts, Harald Atmanspacher, Robert Bordley, and Andrei Khrennikov (see additional reading). Ten years later, there appeared many more detailed empirical applications (see additional reading). A special issue on “Quantum Cognition and Decision” appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Psychology (2009, vol 53.), which planted a flag for the field. Two books closely related to quantum cognition were recently published by Khrennikov (2010) and Ivancivic and Ivancivic (2010), and a new book on quantum cognition and decision is being prepared by Busemeyer and Bruza. The first Quantum Interaction workshop was held at Stanford in 2007 organized by Peter Bruza, William Lawless, C. J. van Rijsbergen, and Don Sofge as part of the 2007 AAAI Spring Symposium Series. This first workshop was followed by workshops at Oxford (England) in 2008, Saarbruken (Germany) in 2009, and most recently at the 2010 AAAI Fall Symposium Series held in Washington DC. The next workshop will take place in Aberdeen, Scotland 26–29 June 2011. Tutorials also were presented annually beginning in 2007 until 2009 at the meeting of the Cognitive Science Society.
Links
- http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbusemey/quantum/Quantum%20Cognition%20Notes.htm
- http://www.le.ac.uk/ulsm/research/qdt/index.html
- http://www.quantum-cognition.de/
- http://homepage.mac.com/pbruza/blogsite/research/research.html
- http://www.rgu.ac.uk/qi2011
- https://people.ok.ubc.ca/lgabora/research.htm
Additional Reading
- Accardi, L., Khrennikov, A., Ohya, M. (2009) Quantum Markov model for data from Shafir-Tversky experiments in cognitive psychology. Open Systems and Information Dynamics, 16, 371-385.
- Aerts, D. & Aerts, S. (1995). Applications of quantum statistics in psychological studies of decision processes. Foundations of Science, 1, 85-97.
- Aerts, D., Aerts, S. and Gabora, L. (2009). Experimental evidence for quantum structure in cognition. In P. D. Bruza, D. Sofge, W. Lawless, C. J. van Rijsbergen and M. Klusch (Eds.), Proceedings of QI 2009-Third International Symposium on Quantum Interaction, Book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5494, 59-70. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
- Aerts, D., Broekaert, J. & Gabora, L. (2011). A case for applying an abstracted quantum formalism to cognition. New Ideas in Psychology, 29(1), 136-146.
- Aerts, D. and D'Hooghe, B. (2009). Classical logical versus quantum conceptual thought: Examples in economics, decision theory and concept theory. In P. D. Bruza, D. Sofge, W. Lawless, C. J. van Rijsbergen and M. Klusch (Eds.), Proceedings of QI 2009-Third International Symposium on Quantum Interaction, Book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5494, 128-142. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
- Atmanspacher, H. (1992). Categoreal and a categoreal representation of knowledge. Cognitive Systems, 3, 259-288.
- Atmanspacher, H., Filk, T., & Romer, H. (2004). Quantum Zeno features of bistable perception. Biological Cybernetics, 90, 33-40.
- Blutner, R. (2009). Concepts and bounded rationality: An application of Niestegge's approach to conditional quantum probabilities. In L. Accardi, G. Adenier, C. Fuchs, G. Jaeger, A. Khrennikov, L. J. A. & S. Stenholm (Eds.), Foundations of Probability and Physics - 5 (Vol. 1101, pp. 302–310): NY: American Institute of Physics Conference Proceedings.
- Bordley, R. F. (1998). Quantum mechanical and human violations of compound probability principles: Toward a generalized Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Operations Research, 46, 923-926.
- Bruza, P. D., Lawless, W., van Rijsbergen, C.J., & Sofge, D., Editors. (2007). Proceedings of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Quantum Interaction, March 27–29. Stanford University, 2007. AAAI Press.
- Bruza, P. D., Lawless, W., van Rijsbergen, C.J., & Sofge, D., Editors. (2008). Quantum interaction: Proceedings of the Second Quantum Interaction Symposium. London: College Publications.
- Bruza, P.D., Sofge, D., Lawless, W., Van Risjbergen, K., & Klusch, M., Editors. (2009). Proceedings of the Third Quantum Interaction Symposium. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, vol. 5494, Springer.
- Busemeyer, J. R. & Bruza, P. D. (in preparation). Quantum cognition and decision. Cambridge University Press.
- Conte, E., Todarello, O., Federici, A., Vitiello, F., Lopane, M., Khrennikov, A. (2006). Some remarks on an experiment suggesting quantum-like behavior of cognitive entities and formulation of an abstract quantum mechanical formalism to describe cognitive entity and its dynamics. Chaos, Solitons, and Fractals, 31, 1076-1088.
- Busemeyer, J. R., Wang, Z., & Townsend, J. T. (2006). Quantum dynamics of human decision making. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 50 (3), 220-241.
- Ivancevic, V. and Aidman, E. (2007). Life space foam: a medium for motivational and cognitive dynamics. Physica A, 382, 616-630.
- Ivancevic, V. and Ivancevic, T. (2010) Quantum neural networks. Springer.
- Khrennikov, A. Y. (1999). Classical and quantum mechanics on information spaces with applications to cognitive, psychological, social, and anomalous phenomena.Foundations of Physics, 29, 1065-1098.
- Franco, R. (2009). The conjunctive fallacy and interference effects. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53(5), 415-422.
- Gabora, L., Rosch, E., & Aerts, D. (2008). Toward an ecological theory of concepts. Ecological Psychology, 20(1), 84-116.
- Gabora, L. & Aerts, D. (2009). A model of the emergence and evolution of integrated worldviews. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53, 434-451.
- LaMura, P. (2009) Projective expected utility. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53 (5) 408-414.
- Lambert- Mogiliansky, A., Zamir, S., and Zwirn, H. (2009) Type indeterminancy: A model of the KT (Kahneman – Tversky) type man. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53 (5) 349-361.