On selective influences, marginal selectivity, and Bell/CHSH inequalities

Abstract

The Bell/CHSH inequalities of quantum physics are identical with the inequalities derived in mathematical psychology for the problem of selective influences in cases involving two bi- nary experimental factors and two binary random variables recorded in response to them. The following points are made regarding cognitive science applications: (1) compliance of data with these inequalities is informative only if the data satisfy the requirement known as marginal selectivity; (2) both violations of marginal selectivity and violations of the Bell/CHSH inequalities are interpretable as indicating that at least one of the two responses is influenced by both experimental factors.