English

Quantum formalism for cognitive psychology

Neurons and Cognition 2026-03-17 v1 Quantum Physics

Abstract

The cognitive state of mind concerning a range of choices to be made can effectively be modelled in terms of an element of a high-dimensional Hilbert space. The dynamics of the state of mind resulting form information acquisition is characterised by the von Neumann-L\"uders projection postulate of quantum theory. This is shown to give rise to an uncertainty-minimising dynamical behaviour equivalent to the Bayesian updating, hence providing an alternative approach to characterising the dynamics of cognitive state that is consistent with the free energy principle in brain science. The quantum formalism however goes beyond the range of applicability of classical reasoning in explaining cognitive behaviours, thus opens up new and intriguing possibilities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2303.06055,
  title  = {Quantum formalism for cognitive psychology},
  author = {Dorje C Brody},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2303.06055},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:11:29.926Z