Order effects in dynamic semantics

TL;DR

This paper explores how order effects in human cognition, such as belief revision and anaphor resolution, can be modeled using concepts from quantum theory and dynamic semantics, highlighting non-commutative mental operations.

Contribution

It draws analogies between dynamic semantics and quantum theory to explain various order effects in cognition, emphasizing the role of non-commutativity in mental processes.

Findings

Order effects arise from non-commutative mental operations.

Analogies between dynamic semantics and quantum theory illuminate cognition.

Different types of order effects include belief revision and anaphor resolution.

Abstract

In their target article, \citet{WangBusemeyer13} [A quantum question order model supported by empirical tests of an a priori and precise prediction. \emph{Topics in Cognitive Science}] discuss question order effects in terms of incompatible projectors on a Hilbert space. In a similar vein, Blutner recently presented an orthoalgebraic query language essentially relying on dynamic update semantics. Here, I shall comment on some interesting analogies between the different variants of dynamic semantics and generalized quantum theory to illustrate other kinds of order effects in human cognition, such as belief revision, the resolution of anaphors, and default reasoning that result from the crucial non-commutativity of mental operations upon the belief state of a cognitive agent.