Spin and Wind Directions I: Identifying Entanglement in Nature and Cognition

Diederik Aerts,Lester Beltran,Tomas Veloz,Massimiliano Sassoli De Bianchi,Jonito Aerts Arguëlles,Suzette Geriente,Sandro Sozzo

doi:10.1007/s10699-017-9528-9

Diederik Aerts, Lester Beltran + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-017-9528-9

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Abstract

We present a cognitive psychology experiment where participants were asked to select pairs of spatial directions that they considered to be the best example of Two different wind directions. Data are shown to violate the CHSH version of Bell’s inequality with the same magnitude as in typical Bell-test experiments with entangled spins. Wind directions thus appear to be conceptual entities connected through meaning, in human cognition, in a similar way as spins appear to be entangled in experiments conducted in physics laboratories. This is the first part of a two-part article. In the second part (Aerts et al. in Found Sci, 2017) we present a symmetrized version of the same experiment for which we provide a quantum modeling of the collected data in Hilbert space.

Highlights

Entanglement is one of the most characteristic manifestations of quantum structures and has been widely investigated both theoretically and experimentally
We present a cognitive psychology experiment where participants were asked to select pairs of spatial directions that they considered to be the best example of Two different wind directions
Wind directions appear to be conceptual entities connected through meaning, in human cognition, in a similar way as spins appear to be entangled in experiments conducted in & Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi msassoli@vub.ac.be Diederik Aerts diraerts@vub.ac.be Jonito Aerts Arguelles jonitoarguelles@gmail.com Lester Beltran lestercc21@gmail.com Suzette Geriente sgeriente83@yahoo.com Sandro Sozzo ss831@le.ac.uk Tomas Veloz tveloz@gmail.com

Summary

Introduction

Entanglement is one of the most characteristic manifestations of quantum structures and has been widely investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The quantum mechanical prediction, nowadays confirmed by a considerable amount of experimental data (Aspect et al 1982; Tittel et al 1998; Weihs et al 1998; Genovese 2005; Giustina et al 2013; Christensen et al 2013; Hensen et al 2016), is that the CHSH inequality is violated when joint measurements are performed on bipartite systems, like spin systems, prepared in an entangled state This is a situation that cannot be properly modeled by a classical (Kolmogorovian) probability theory. This is what can be expected to happen with entangled quantum entities, their connection remains in this case hidden, i.e., appears to be a ‘nonspatial connection’, the strangeness of the quantum entanglement phenomenon, famously referred to by Einstein as ‘‘spooky action at a distance’’

Entangled Wind Directions in Human Cognition

Concluding Remarks