Experimental evidence for quantum structure in cognition

Diederik Aerts, Sven Aerts, Liane Gabora

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference paper

    28 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We proof a theorem that shows that a collection of experimental data of membership weights of items with respect to a pair of concepts and its conjunction cannot be modeled within a classical measure theoretic weight structure in case the experimental data contain the effect called overextension. Since the effect of overextension, analogue to the well-known guppy effect for concept combinations, is abundant in all experiments testing weights of items with respect to pairs of concepts and their conjunctions, our theorem constitutes a no-go theorem for classical measure structure for common data of membership weights of items with respect to concepts and their combinations. We put forward a simple geometric criterion that reveals the non classicality of the membership weight structure and use experimentally measured membership weights estimated by subjects in experiments to illustrate our geometrical criterion. The violation of the classical weight structure is similar to the violation of the well-known Bell inequalities studied in quantum mechanics, and hence suggests that the quantum formalism and hence the modeling by quantum membership weights can accomplish what classical membership weights cannot do.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of QI 2009-Third International Symposium on Quantum Interaction, Book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
    PublisherSpringer
    Pages59-70
    Number of pages12
    Volume5494
    ISBN (Print)978-3-642-00833-7
    Publication statusPublished - 2009
    EventFinds and Results from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition: A Gender Perspective at the Medelhavsmuseet - Stockholm, Sweden
    Duration: 21 Sept 200925 Sept 2009

    Conference

    ConferenceFinds and Results from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition: A Gender Perspective at the Medelhavsmuseet
    Country/TerritorySweden
    CityStockholm
    Period21/09/0925/09/09

    Keywords

    • quantum interaction
    • correlation polytope

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