About the course
Quantum mechanics is one of the most powerful ideas ever developed, not only in physics but as a way of thinking about uncertainty itself. When physicists realised that classical probability could not describe the microscopic world, they built an entirely new framework: quantum theory. It turns out to be useful far beyond physics, wherever uncertainty, ambiguity and context matter.
That is where the human mind comes in. In cognitive psychology, human behaviour often violates the rules of classical probability. These paradoxes sit at the heart of the heuristics and biases tradition, one of the most influential research programmes in psychology and the foundation of several Nobel Prizes, and quantum theory often captures them surprisingly well.
This course explores why and how quantum theory can model human thought: one of the most exciting interdisciplinary frontiers in psychology today.
What you’ll learn
You will:
- See why classical probability was assumed to govern human decision-making, and where it breaks down
- Explore the paradoxes that have shaped modern cognitive and decision theory
- Learn the motivation behind quantum approaches to cognition and examine early foundational models
- Work through the mechanics of key quantum cognitive models
- Understand dynamical approaches to modelling mental processes
- Explore real-world applications, from organisational psychology to legal decision-making
- Engage with current developments and open challenges in the field