Quantum Measurement, Entanglement and the Warping Mechanism of Human Perception

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quantum measurement processes inherently include a warping mechanism similar to categorical perception in humans, linking quantum state metrics to perceptual phenomena.

Contribution

It reveals the quantum measurement process as a natural model for categorical perception, connecting quantum state metrics with perceptual warping.

Findings

Quantum measurement exhibits warping similar to categorical perception.

Fubini-Study and trace class metrics naturally describe pure and density states.

Quantum model of a qubit illustrates perception-like warping effects.

Abstract

We prove that the quantum measurement process contains the same warping mechanism that occurs in categorical perception, a phenomenon ubiquitous in human perception. This warping causes stimuli belonging to the same category to be perceived as more similar, while stimuli belonging to different categories are perceived as more different. As a result of a detailed study of the quantum measurement using the Bloch representation, we identify the natural metric for pure states, namely the Fubini Study metric, and the natural metric for density states, namely the trace class metric. The warping mechanism of categorical perception is then manifested, when the distances between pure states, playing the role of stimuli for the quantum measurement, are warped into the distances between density states, playing the role of percepts for quantum measurement. We work out the example of a two-dimensional quantum model, a qubit, with 'light' and 'dark' as the two eigenstates, and show how the typical contraction and dilation warping of human perception manifest themselves in this example of the quantum measurement model of light and dark.