Theoretical and empirical reasons for considering the application of quantum probability theory to human cognition

This paper examines six theoretical reasons for considering the application of quantum theory to human cognition. It also presents six empirical examples that –while puzzling from a classic probability framework –are coherently explained by a quantum approach. Quantum physics was created to explain puzzling …ndings that were impossible to understand using the older classical physical theory. In the process of creating quantum mechanics, physicists also created a new theory of probability. Can this new probability theory be usefully applied to …elds outside of physics? This paper explores the application of quantum probability theory to the …eld of cognition and decision making. Almost all previous modeling in cognitive and decision sciences has relied on principles derived from classical probability theory. But these …elds have also encountered puzzling …ndings that also seem impossible to understand within this limited framework. Quantum principles may provide some solutions. In the following paper, we …rst provide some general reasons for considering the application of quantum probability to human cognition1 , second we review …ndings that are very puzzling from a classic probability theory framework, …nally we show how quantum theory provides a more coherent and uni…ed account of these diverse …ndings. 1 Six reasons for a quantum approach to cognition The …rst reason concerns the quantum concept of superposition. Classic cognitive models assume that at each moment a person is in a de…nite state with This material is based upon work supported by US National Science Foundation Grant No. 0817965. The authors thank the IU quantum group for comments and ideas including J. Michael Dunn, Andrew J. Hanson, Andrew Lumsdaine, Lawrence S. Moss, Gerardo Ortiz, Amr Sabry, and Jeremiah Willcock 1Sixe reasons are described but they can be boiled down to one (incompatability between subspaces used to de…ne events). But we prefer to spell out the six implications of this one general reason.