Quantum-Like Structure in Multidimensional Relevance Judgements

Abstract

A large number of studies in cognitive science have revealed that probabilistic outcomes of certain human decisions do not agree with the axioms of classical probability theory. The field of Quantum Cognition provides an alternative probabilistic model to explain such paradoxical findings. It posits that cognitive systems have an underlying quantum-like structure, especially in decision-making under uncertainty. In this paper, we hypothesise that relevance judgement, being a multidimensional, cognitive concept, can be used to probe the quantum-like structure for modelling users’ cognitive states in information seeking. Extending from an experiment protocol inspired by the Stern-Gerlach experiment in Quantum Physics, we design a crowd-sourced user study to show violation of the Kolmogorovian probability axioms as a proof of the quantum-like structure, and provide a comparison between a quantum probabilistic model and a Bayesian model for predictions of relevance.