Context and Interference Effects in the Combinations of Natural Concepts
arXiv:1612.06038 · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-57837-8_54
Abstract
The mathematical formalism of quantum theory exhibits significant effectiveness when applied to cognitive phenomena that have resisted traditional (set theoretical) modeling. Relying on a decade of research on the operational foundations of micro-physical and conceptual entities, we present a theoretical framework for the representation of concepts and their conjunctions and disjunctions that uses the quantum formalism. This framework provides a unified solution to the 'conceptual combinations problem' of cognitive psychology, explaining the observed deviations from classical (Boolean, fuzzy set and Kolmogorovian) structures in terms of genuine quantum effects. In particular, natural concepts 'interfere' when they combine to form more complex conceptual entities, and they also exhibit a 'quantum-type context-dependence', which are responsible of the 'over- and under-extension' that are systematically observed in experiments on membership judgments.
arXiv comment12 pages, no figures
References in corpus (9)
- Quantum Structure in Cognition
- A Theory of Concepts and Their Combinations II: A Hilbert Space Representation
- Concepts and Their Dynamics: A Quantum-Theoretic Modeling of Human Thought
- A Theory of Concepts and Their Combinations I: The Structure of the Sets of Contexts and Properties
- On the Foundations of the Brussels Operational-Realistic Approach to Cognition
- A New Fundamental Evidence of Non-Classical Structure in the Combination of Natural Concepts
- Quantum Structure of Negation and Conjunction in Human Thought
- Quantum Interference and Superposition in Cognition: Development of a Theory for the Disjunction of Concepts
- Beyond-Quantum Modeling of Question Order Effects and Response Replicability in Psychological Measurements