Research centres
Mathematical Neuroscience and Psychology

Centre for Mathematical Neuroscience and Psychology

Welcome to the Centre for Mathematical Neuroscience and Psychology

We study psychology and neuroscience, with an emphasis on mathematical methods.

About

Mathematical psychology and computational neuroscience are two increasingly influential research directions in the field of cognitive sciences. The main goals of the Centre are to foster and increase the visibility of existing research on the computational principles underlying cognition and brain function and provide a means for facilitating interdisciplinary links with colleagues especially in Mathematics and Computer Science.

A particular area of excellence concerns the new field of ‘quantum cognition’. How can quantum theory have anything to do with human behaviour? Quantum mechanics is a theory of physics, which includes a theory of probability: quantum theory. Quantum theory is applicable in any situation where there is a need to formalise uncertainty, just like Bayesian (classical) probability theory.

Why might the mind employ quantum principles? Of course, this question might be rephrased to ‘why might the mind employ Bayesian principles’ or ‘why might the mind employ heuristics’. Our research is concerned with exactly these questions -- not just for quantum, though our work with quantum tool has allowed surprising insights into cognition, novel predictions, and a redescription of what it means to be rational.

Professor Emmanuel Pothos, Dr. Francesco Rigoli
Directors, CMNP

People

Director

Prof. Emmanuel Pothos
Professor of Psychology, School of Health and Psychological Sciences

Emmanuel has been primarily working on quantum cognitive models, that is, cognitive models based on the probability rules from quantum theory.

Associates

Dr. Francesco Rigoli
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Health and Psychological Sciences

Dr. Eduardo Alonso
Reader in Computing, School of Science and Technology

Prof. Mark Broom
Head of Mathematics, School of Science and Technology

Dr. James Yearsley
Senior Lectureship in Psychology, School of Health and Psychological Sciences

Dr. Carsten Allefeld
Lecturer in Psychology, School of Health and Psychological Sciences

Dr. Dimitrios Pinotsis
Senior Lecturer in Psychology, School of Health and Psychological Sciences

Dr. Mehdi Keramati
Lecturer in Psychology, School of Health and Psychological Sciences

Dr Esther Mondragón
Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence, School of Science and Technology

Dr Daniel Chicharro
Daniel is a lecturer in the Computer Science Department at City and a member of the Artificial Intelligence Research Centre (CitAI).

PhD Students

Oliver WaddupOliver Waddup ([email protected])

Oliver has been studying whether we can employ the Bell framework from quantum theory to study the interaction between two agents. Is there place for the idea of supercorrelation in the interaction of two agents? He is funded by the Office of Naval Research Global. He is supervised by Emmanuel Pothos and James Yearsley.

Zo Ebelt ([email protected])

One part of Zo’s PhD concerns modelling of decision fallacies with quantum theory. Another part concerns whether quantum notions of incompatibility and compatibility can be utilised to explain why in some cases we (people in general) appear to show opinion entrenchment. He is supervised by Emmanuel Pothos and James Yearsley.

Stephan Treiss Stephan Treiss ([email protected])

Stephan has been working on how emotion may impact on loss aversion. He is funded by his company. He is supervised by Emmanuel Pothos and Philip Corr.

Prince KouassiPrince Kouassi ([email protected])

Prince’s PhD involves a range of topics, including in quantum cognition. In one of his studies he has been looking to extend the demonstrations of conjunction fallacies in a probabilistic context. He is supervised by James Yearsley and Emmanuel Pothos

Previous members

Mr. Albert Barque-Duran. He completed his PhD with Emmanuel Pothos and James Yearsley in 2016,

Dr. Irina Basieva. She was a Marie Curie fellow (with Emmanuel Pothos) between 2016 and 2018.

Mr. Stephen Cantarutti. He completed his PhD with Emmanuel Pothos and Katy Tapper in 2021.

Research

Aims of the centre

  • To support existing and new programmes of research dedicated to the development of mathematical and computational models in psychology and cognitive neuroscience
  • To facilitate innovative collaborations between the psychology department and departments of the School of Science and Technology
  • To support existing and new programmes of research at the interface between psychology and technology (e.g. artificial intelligence and robotics)
  • To favour the collaboration with clinical psychologists and neuroscientists in the department for developing mathematical models of psychopathology and clinical interventions (computational psychiatry approach).

Our research falls into the following themes:

Quantum cognition. This research concerns the application of tools from quantum theory to the psychological theory.

Quantum mechanics is a theory of physics. But, the pioneering physicists who developed quantum mechanics realised that the ‘quantum’ approach to physics required probability rules different to those employed up to that point. So, together with a new physics theory, they also developed a new theory of probability – what we call quantum theory.

Quantum theory is in principle applicable in any case where there is a need to formalise uncertainty. It is a general theory of probabilistic inference.

Some of the characteristics of quantum theory which have made it suitable for quantum mechanics appear to be relevant to the study of behaviour as well. Notably, there appear to be instances of behaviour which show contextuality, interference, constructive influences.

The quantum cognition research program has received considerable recognition, as evidenced by publications in the highest ranking psychology journals (such as Psychological Review, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the Annual Review of Psychologym, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Cognition), top general science journals (such as PNAS and PROCB), several special issues (in the Journal of Mathematical Psychology, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, and TOPiCS), regular symposia and tutorials in the Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, and a book by Cambridge University Press.

Publications

We highlight here the most significant publications, organised in terms of Centre themes.

Quantum cognition

  1. Yearsley, J. M., Pothos, E. M., Barque-Duran, A., Trueblood, J. S., & Hampton, J. A. (in press). Context effects in similarity judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
  2. Pothos, E. M. & Busemeyer, J. M. (in press, expected end of 2021). Quantum cognition. Annual Review of Psychology.
  3. Blasiak, P., Pothos, E. M., Yearsley, J. M., Gallus, C., & Borsuk, E. (2021). Violations of locality and free choice are equivalent resources in Bell experiments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118, e2020569118.
  4. Pothos, E. M., Lewandowsky, S., Basieva, I., Barque-Duran, A., Tapper, K., & Khrennikov, A. (2021). Information overload for (bounded) rational agents. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 288, 20202957.
  5. Broekaert, J. B., Busemeyer, J. R., & Pothos, E. M. (2020). The disjunction effect in two-stage simulated gambles. An experimental study and comparison of a heuristic logistic, Markov and quantum-like model. Cognitive Psychology, 117, 101262.
  6. Trueblood, J. S., Yearsley, J. M., & Pothos, E. M. (2017). A quantum probability framework for human probabilistic inference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146, 1307-1341.
  7. Pothos, E. M., Busemeyer, J. R., Shiffrin, R. M., & Yearsley, J. M. (2017). The rational status of quantum cognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146, 968-987.
  8. Yearsley, J. M. & Pothos, E. M. (2016). Zeno’s paradox in decision making. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 283, 20160291.
  9. Yearsley, J. M. & Pothos, E. M. (2014). Challenging the classical notion of time in cognition: a quantum perspective. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 281, 1471-1479.
  10. Pothos, E. M., Busemeyer, J. R., & Trueblood, J. S.  (2013). A quantum geometric model of similarity. Psychological Review, 120, 679-696.
  11. Pothos, E. M. & Busemeyer, J. R. (2013). Can quantum probability provide a new direction for cognitive modeling? Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 36, 255-327.  (target article)
  12. Wills, A. J. & Pothos, E. M. (2012). On the adequacy of current empirical evaluations of formal models of categorization. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 102-125.
  13. Busemeyer, J. R., Pothos, E. M., Franco, R., & Trueblood, J. (2011). A quantum theoretical explanation for probability judgment errors. Psychological Review, 118, 193-218.
  14. Pothos, E. M. & Busemeyer, J. R. (2009). A quantum probability explanation for violations of 'rational' decision theory. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 2171-2178.

Grants

Quantum cognition

2018: E. M. Pothos, P. Blasiak, & B. W. Wojciechowski: 36 month Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG) grant to study “Anticipating decisions and Bell’s bound.” Value: £115,613.

2016: E. M. Pothos, J. R. Busemeyer, & R. M. Shiffrin: 24 month Leverhulme Trust grant to study “A quantum approach to decision making in Bernoulli’s St. Petersburg’s paradox.” Value: £111,895.

2016: I. Basieva & E. M. Pothos: 24 month Horizon 2020 Marie Curie Fellowship to study “Quantum decision making.” Value: £147,398.

2013: E. M. Pothos: 36 month Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Material Command, USAF grant to study “The constructive role of decisions: implications from a quantum approach.” Value: £144,023.

2013: E. M. Pothos, J. R. Busemeyer, J. Trueblood, & J. A. Hampton: 24 month Leverhulme Trust grant to study “Quantum similarity: harnessing the flexibility of human similarity judgment.” Value: £98,962.

Events

2020

Special Issues in TOPiCS on Rethinking Rationality, editors Emmanuel Pothos and Tim Pleskac. The special issue brings together state of the art perspectives on rationality and it illuminates many key issues which have puzzled decisions theorists for a long time. Notably, the issue explores constraints on ideal forms of rationality, whether such constraints are resource related or from other sources (e.g., from language). The list of contributions to the special issue is as follows.

  • Title: Extending rationality: the challenge of reinventing rationality and current state of the art. Authors: E. M. Pothos & T. J. Pleskac.
  • Title: Modeling and supporting human goal-pursuit: a resource rational approach. Authors: F. Mohnert, M. Tošić, & F. Lieder.
  • Title: Optimal nudging: Helping rational but resource-limited agents make better decisions. Authors: M. Hardy, F. Callaway, & T. L. Griffiths.
  • Title: The framework of ecological rationality and two case studies. Authors: R. Hertwig, C. Leuker, T. Pachur, T. Pleskac, & L. Spiliopoulos.
  • Title: Perspective taking, interference effects, and rationality in a strategical game. Authors: J. R. Busemeyer & J. Wang.
  • Title: Constructive influences in clinical judgments. Authors: B. W. Wojciechowski, Izydorczyk, B., L. C. White, P. Blasiak, J. M. Yearsley, & E. M. Pothos
  • Title: Probabilistic pragmatics in syllogistic reasoning. Authors: MH Tessler, J. B. Tenenbaum, & N. D. Goodman.
  • Title: Decision Theory Needs to Model and Study Vagueness. Author: R. M. Shiffrin

2019

We organised a symposium on new directions in rationality. The symposium brought together many of the dominant figures in the rationality debate, who presented their viewpoint and debated the merits and demerits of their approaches relative to the other ones.

The symposium included a quantum perspective to rationality, that is, how quantum theory allows us to rethink the meaning of rational decision making and probabilistic inference.

Pothos, E. M., Busemeyer, J. R., Pleskac, T., Yearsley, J. M., Tenenbaum, J. B., Goodman, N. D., Tessler, M. H., Griffiths, T. L., Lieder, F., Hertwig, R., Pachur, T., Leuker, C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (2019). Symposium on extending rationality. In Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, Canada: Cognitive Science Society.