Quantum Structures: An Attempt to Explain the Origin of their Appearance in Nature

Experiments in cognitive science and decision theory show that the ways in which people combine concepts and make decisions cannot be described by classical logic and probability theory. This has serious implications for applied disciplines such as information retrieval, artificial intelligence and robotics. Inspired by a mathematical formalism that generalizes quantum mechanics the authors have constructed a contextual framework for both concept representation and decision m...

In this article, we propose to use the formalism of quantum mechanics to describe and explain the so-called "abnormal" behaviour of agents in certain decision or choice contexts. The basic idea is to postulate that the preferences of these agents are indeterminate (in the quantum sense of the term) before the choice is made or the decision is taken. An agent's state before the decision is represented by a superposition of potential preferences. The decision is assimilated to ...

We present a brief non-technical introduction to the standing discussion on the relation between Quantum Mechanics and Determinism. Quantum Mechanics inherent randomness in the measurement process is sometimes presented as a door to explain free will. We argue against this interpretation. The possibility that Quantum Mechanics provides just an effective description of Nature which is only valid at our low-energy scales is also discussed.

We present a quantum-like (QL) model in that contexts (complexes of e.g. mental, social, biological, economic or even political conditions) are represented by complex probability amplitudes. This approach gives the possibility to apply the mathematical quantum formalism to probabilities induced in any domain of science. In our model quantum randomness appears not as irreducible randomness (as it is commonly accepted in conventional quantum mechanics, e.g., by von Neumann and ...

This article presents a new quantum-like model for cognition explicitly based on knowledge. It is shown that this model, called QKT (quantum knowledge-based theory), is able to coherently describe some experimental results that are problematic for the prior quantum-like decision models. In particular, I consider the experimental results relevant to the post-decision cognitive dissonance, the problems relevant to the question order effect and response replicability, and those ...

The applications of techniques from statistical (and classical) mechanics to model interesting problems in economics and finance has produced valuable results. The principal movement which has steered this research direction is known under the name of `econophysics'. In this paper, we illustrate and advance some of the findings that have been obtained by applying the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics to model human decision making under `uncertainty' in behavioral e...

We present an experimental illustration on the quantum sensitivity of decision making machinery. In the decision making process, we consider the role of available information, say hint, whether it influences the optimal choices. To the end, we consider a machinery method of decision making in a probabilistic way. Our main result shows that in decision making process our quantum machine is more highly sensitive than its classical counterpart to the hints we categorize into "go...

The theory of probability and the quantum theory, the one mathematical and the other physical, are related in that each admits a number of very different interpretations. It has been proposed that the conceptual problems of the quantum theory could be, if not resolved, at least mitigated by a proper interpretation of probability. We rather show, through a historical and analytical overview of probability and quantum theory, that if some interpretations of the one and the othe...

We present a general classification of the conditions under which cognitive science, concerned e.g. with decision making, requires the use of quantum theoretical notions. The analysis is done in the frame of the mathematical approach based on the theory of quantum measurements. We stress that quantum effects in cognition can arise only when decisions are made under uncertainty. Conditions for the appearance of quantum interference in cognitive sciences and the conditions when...

The idea that wave-function collapse is a physical process stems from a misunderstanding of probability and the role it plays in quantum mechanics.