The cognitive triple-slit experiment

TL;DR

This paper explores a cognitive analogy to the quantum triple-slit experiment, demonstrating interference effects in human decision-making and highlighting differences in how quantum entities and concepts manifest.

Contribution

It introduces a cognitive triple-slit experiment model, revealing interference patterns in human decisions and analyzing deviations from standard quantum interference.

Findings

Interference fringes observed in human decision data

Presence of strong third-order interference contributions

Differences in manifestation of conceptuality between quantum entities and human concepts

Abstract

Quantum cognition has made it possible to model human cognitive processes very effectively, revealing numerous parallels between the properties of conceptual entities tested by the human mind and those of microscopic entities tested by measurement apparatuses. The success of quantum cognition has also made it possible to formulate an interpretation of quantum mechanics, called the conceptuality interpretation, which ascribes to quantum entities a conceptual nature similar to that of human concepts. The present work fits into these lines of research by analyzing a cognitive version of single, double, and triple-slit experiments. The data clearly show the formation of the typical interference fringes between the slits as well as the embryos of secondary fringes. Our analysis also shows that while quantum entities and human concepts may share a same conceptual nature, the way they manifest it in specific contexts can be quite different. This is also evident from the significant deviation from zero observed for the Sorkin parameter, indicating the presence of strong irreducible third-order interference contributions in human decision.