Quantum Entanglement in Concept Combinations
This work addresses foundational issues in quantum theory and cognitive science by providing a model that could explain anomalies in EPR-Bell experiments, though it is incremental in refining existing quantum-based approaches.
The paper tackled the problem of modeling concept combinations in cognitive science using quantum structures, showing that Bell's inequalities are violated in experimental data and presenting a refined entanglement scheme with entangled measurements and evolutions to represent this within standard quantum theory.
Research in the application of quantum structures to cognitive science confirms that these structures quite systematically appear in the dynamics of concepts and their combinations and quantum-based models faithfully represent experimental data of situations where classical approaches are problematical. In this paper, we analyze the data we collected in an experiment on a specific conceptual combination, showing that Bell's inequalities are violated in the experiment. We present a new refined entanglement scheme to model these data within standard quantum theory rules, where 'entangled measurements and entangled evolutions' occur, in addition to the expected 'entangled states', and present a full quantum representation in complex Hilbert space of the data. This stronger form of entanglement in measurements and evolutions might have relevant applications in the foundations of quantum theory, as well as in the interpretation of nonlocality tests. It could indeed explain some non-negligible 'anomalies' identified in EPR-Bell experiments.