arXiv subjects

Riccardo Franco

Publications and source records attributed to Riccardo Franco.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Constructed emotions and superinformation: a constructor-theoretic approach

In this paper we apply the constructor-theoretic approach to the theory of constructed emotions, showing that core affect valence and knowledge can be considered as two different observables, leading to information or superinformation conditions: this depends on subject's strategy, coherently with the affect infusion model. In the second part of the article we show that additional hypotheses on the structure of information allows to study emotions in terms of the contructor-theoretic version of phase task. Quantum algorithms are presented as an example of the connection between emotions and memory tasks.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2019

First steps to a constructor theory of cognition

This article applies the conceptual framework of constructor theory of information to cognition theory. The main result of this work is that cognition theory, in specific situations concerning for example the conjunction fallacy heuristic, requires the use of superinformation media, just as quantum theory. This result entails that quantum and cognition theories can be considered as elements of a general class of superinformation-based subsidiary theories.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2016

Towards a new quantum cognition model

This article presents a new quantum-like model for cognition explicitly based on knowledge. It is shown that this model, called QKT (quantum knowledge-based theory), is able to coherently describe some experimental results that are problematic for the prior quantum-like decision models. In particular, I consider the experimental results relevant to the post-decision cognitive dissonance, the problems relevant to the question order effect and response replicability, and those relevant to the grand-reciprocity equations. A new set of postulates is proposed, which evidence the different meaning given to the projectors and to the quantum states. In the final part, I show that the use of quantum gates can help to better describe and understand the evolution of quantum-like models.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2009

Quantum Probability Explanations for Probability Judgment 'Errors'

A quantum probability model is introduced and used to explain human probability judgment errors including the conjunction, disjunction, inverse, and conditional fallacies, as well as unpacking effects and partitioning effects. Quantum probability theory is a general and coherent theory based on a set of (von Neumann) axioms which relax some of the constraints underlying classic (Kolmogorov) probability theory. The quantum model is compared and contrasted with other competing explanations for these judgment errors including the representativeness heuristic, the averaging model, and a memory retrieval model for probability judgments. The quantum model also provides ways to extend Bayesian, fuzzy set, and fuzzy trace theories. We conclude that quantum information processing principles provide a viable and promising new way to understand human judgment and reasoning.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2008

Quantum amplitude amplification algorithm: an explanation of availability bias

In this article, I show that a recent family of quantum algorithms, based on the quantum amplitude amplification algorithm, can be used to describe a cognitive heuristic called availability bias. The amplitude amplification algorithm is used to define quantitatively the ease of a memory task, while the quantum amplitude estimation and the quantum counting algorithms to describe cognitive tasks such as estimating probability or approximate counting.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Grover's algorithm and human memory

In this article we consider an experimental study showing the influence of emotion regulation strategies on human memory performance: part of such experimental results are difficult to explain within a classic cognitive allocation model. We provide a first attempt to build a model of human memory processes based on a quantum algorithm, the Grover's algorithm, which allows to search a particular item within an unsorted set of items more efficiently than any classic search algorithm. Based on Grover's algorithm paradigm, this new memory model results to have interesting features: it is an iterative process, it uses parallelism and interference effects. Moreover, the strength of such interference effects depends on a parameter of the generalized Grover's algorithm, called the phase, which admits an interpretation in terms of the emotions involved by the items and by the emotion regulation strategies. Thus we show that a reasonable choice of the phase is able to describe correctly the experimental results we consider.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2008

Belief revision in quantum decision theory: gambler's and hot hand fallacies

In the present article we introduce a quantum mechanism which is able to describe the creation of correlations in the evaluation of random independent events: such correlations, known as positive and negative recency, correspond respectively to the hot hand's and to the gambler's fallacies. Thus we propose a description of these effects in terms of qubits, which may become entangled, forming a system which can not be described completely only in terms of its constituents. We show that such formalism is able to describe and interpret the experimental results, thus providing a general and unifying framework for the cognitive heuristics.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2007

Risk, ambiguity and quantum decision theory

In the present article we use the quantum formalism to describe the effects of risk and ambiguity in decision theory. The main idea is that the probabilities in the classic theory of expected utility are estimated probabilities, and thus do not follow the classic laws of probability theory. In particular, we show that it is possible to use consistently the classic expected utility formula, where the probability associated to the events are computed with the equation of quantum interference. Thus we show that the correct utility of a lottery can be simply computed by adding to the classic expected utility a new corrective term, the uncertainty utility, directly connected with the quantum interference term.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2007

The conjunction fallacy and interference effects

In the present article we consider the conjunction fallacy, a well known cognitive heuristic experimentally tested in cognitive science, which occurs for intuitive judgments in situations of bounded rationality. We show that the quantum formalism can be used to describe in a very simple way this fallacy in terms of interference effect. We evidence that the quantum formalism leads quite naturally to violations of Bayes' rule when considering the estimated probability of the conjunction of two events. By defining the concept of maximal conjunction error, we find a good agreement with experimental results. Thus we suggest that in cognitive science the formalism of quantum mechanics can be used to describe a \textit{quantum regime}, the bounded-rationality regime, where the cognitive heuristics are valid.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2007

The inverse fallacy and quantum formalism

In the present article we consider the inverse fallacy, a well known cognitive heuristic experimentally tested in cognitive science, which occurs for intuitive judgments in situations of bounded rationality. We show that the quantum formalism can be used to describe in a very simple and general way this fallacy within the quantum formalism. Thus we suggest that in cognitive science the formalism of quantum mechanics can be used to describe a quantum regime, the bounded-rationality regime, where the cognitive heuristics are valid.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2007

Quantum mechanics and rational ignorance

In the present article we use the quantum formalism to describe the process of choice under rational ignorance. We consider as a basic task a question or an issue where the only answers are 0 and 1. We show that under rational ignorance the opinion state of a person can be described as a qubit state. We analyze the predictions that the quantum formalism give in the study of rational ignorance. We find that answers to different uncorrelated questions are contextual, that is they are influenced by the previous questions, even if uncorrelated. Another interesting prediction is an uncertainty effect which holds when we consider the statistical variance of two or more questions under rational ignorance.

physics.gen-ph↗

arXiv2007

Wigner-function description of EPR experiment

We provide a detailed description of the EPR paradox (in the Bohm version) for a two qubit-state in the discrete Wigner function formalism. We compare the probability distributions for two qubit relevant to simultaneously-measurable observables (computed from the Wigner function) with the probability distributions representing two perfectly-correlated classic particles in a discrete phase-space. We write in both cases the updating formulae after a measure, thus obtaining a mathematical definition of \textit{classic collapse} and \textit{quantum collapse}. We study, with the EPR experiment, the joint probability distributions of Alice's and Bob's qubit before and after the measure, analyzing the non-local effects. In particular, we give a more precise definition of locality, which we call m-locality: we show that quantum systems may violate this kind of locality, thus preserving, in an EPR-like argument, the completeness of Quantum Mechanics.

quant-ph↗