Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Booth Street West, Manchester, M15 6PB, UK.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 7;12(1):18938. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22661-8.
Data from eight numerosity estimation experiments reliably exhibit wave-like patterns in plots of the standard deviations of the response times along the abstract parameter of the magnitude of the error in the numerosity estimation. An explanation for this phenomenon is proposed in terms of an analogy between response times and error magnitude on one hand, and energy and position of quantum particles on the other, constructed using an argument for an overlap between the mathematical apparatus describing Hopfield-type neural networks and quantum systems, established by some researchers. Alternative explanations are presented within the traditional explanatory framework of oscillations due to neural firing, involving hypothetical mechanisms for converting oscillation patterns in time to oscillation patterns in the space of an abstract parameter, such as the magnitude of the error during numerosity estimation. The viability of the proposal of causal influences propagating from the microscale of quantum phenomena to the macroscale of human behavior, needed for the first type of explanation, is exemplified by the phenomenon of magnetoreception in some species of birds, which is allegedly quantum in nature.
从八个数值估计实验中得到的数据，在以数值估计中误差幅度的抽象参数为横坐标、反应时的标准差为纵坐标的图表中，可靠地呈现出类似波动的模式。针对这一现象，提出了一种解释，即根据反应时间和误差幅度与量子粒子的能量和位置之间的类比，使用一些研究人员建立的描述 Hopfield 型神经网络和量子系统的数学工具之间重叠的论点来构造。在传统的由于神经放电引起的振荡的解释框架内，提出了替代解释，涉及将时间中的振荡模式转换为抽象参数空间中的振荡模式的假设机制，例如在数值估计过程中误差幅度的振荡模式。对于第一种解释所需的从量子现象的微观尺度到人类行为的宏观尺度传播因果影响的提议的可行性，通过一些鸟类物种的磁受体现象得到了例证，据称该现象具有量子性质。
