Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Why use quantum theory for cognition and decision? Some compelling reasons
- 2 What is quantum theory? An elementary introduction
- 3 What can quantum theory predict? Predicting question order effects on attitudes
- 4 How to apply quantum theory? Accounting for human probability judgment errors
- 5 Quantum-inspired models of concept combinations
- 6 An application of quantum theory to conjoint memory recognition
- 7 Quantum-like models of human semantic space
- 8 What about quantum dynamics? More advanced principles
- 9 What is the quantum advantage? Applications to decision making
- 10 How to model human information processing using quantum information theory
- 11 Can quantum systems learn? Quantum updating
- 12 What are the future prospects for quantum cognition and decision?
- Appendices
- References
- Index
1 - Why use quantum theory for cognition and decision? Some compelling reasons
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Why use quantum theory for cognition and decision? Some compelling reasons
- 2 What is quantum theory? An elementary introduction
- 3 What can quantum theory predict? Predicting question order effects on attitudes
- 4 How to apply quantum theory? Accounting for human probability judgment errors
- 5 Quantum-inspired models of concept combinations
- 6 An application of quantum theory to conjoint memory recognition
- 7 Quantum-like models of human semantic space
- 8 What about quantum dynamics? More advanced principles
- 9 What is the quantum advantage? Applications to decision making
- 10 How to model human information processing using quantum information theory
- 11 Can quantum systems learn? Quantum updating
- 12 What are the future prospects for quantum cognition and decision?
- Appendices
- References
- Index
Summary
Why should you be interested in quantum theory applied to Cognition and decision? Perhaps you are a physicist who is curious whether or not quantum principles can be applied outside of physics. In fact, that is one purpose of this book. Perhaps you are a cognitive scientist who is interested in representing concepts by vectors in a multidimensional feature space. This is essentially the way quantum theory works too. Perhaps you are a decision scientist who is trying to understand how people make decisions under uncertainty. Quantum theory could provide some interesting new answers. Generally speaking, quantum theory is a new theory for constructing probabilistic and dynamic systems, and in this book we apply this new theory to topics in cognition and decision. Later in this chapter we will give some specific examples, but let us step back at this point and try to understand the more general principles that support a quantum approach to cognition and decision.
Six reasons for a quantum approach to cognition and decision
Quantum physics is arguably the most successful scientific theoretical achievement that humans have ever created. It was created to explain puzzling findings that were impossible to understand using the older classical physical theory, and it achieved this by introducing an entirely new set of revolutionary principles. The older classical physical theory is now seen as a special case of the more general quantum theory. In the process of creating quantum mechanics, physicists also created a new theory of probabilistic and dynamic systems that is more general than the previous classic theory (Pitowski, 1989).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision , pp. 1 - 27Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012