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arXiv · 2603.26692

Degrees, Levels, and Profiles of Contextuality

Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov·Victor H. Cervantes
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Abstract

We introduce a new notion, that of a contextuality profile of a system of random variables. Rather than characterizing a system's contextuality by a single number, its overall degree of contextuality, we show how it can be characterized by a curve relating degree of contextuality to level at which the system is considered. A system is represented at level n if one only considers the joint distributions with no more than n variables, ignoring higher-order joint distributions. We show that the level-wise contextuality analysis can be used in conjunction with any well-constructed measure of contextuality. We present a method of concatenated systems to explore contextuality profiles systematically, and we apply it to the contextuality profiles for three major measures of contextuality proposed in the literature.

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Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov, Victor H. Cervantes. 2026-03-16. Degrees, Levels, and Profiles of Contextuality. https://doi.org/10.3390/e28050513

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