Mental Waves

R. C. Henry

Rutger Ockhorst, Freek Pols

Abstract Wave-particle duality is included in many secondary school and university physics curricula as a concept central to quantum physics. The very term wave-particle duality suggests that a firm grasp of the individual classical concepts of wave and particle is crucial to studying quantum mechanics successfully. This raises the question whether students’ mental models of these concepts are sufficiently addressed and developed prior to the teaching of wave-particle duality. We explored Dutch upper secondary school students’ mental models of waves and particles using a short questionnaire. It was administered to a total of 147 students from two different groups. One group consisted of secondary school students prior to receiving formal education in introductory quantum mechanics while students from the other group had recently completed the Dutch national curriculum for pre-university education, which includes wave-particle duality. Our findings support the notion that students model classical particles and waves as mutually exclusive phenomena. Mental models of wave-particle duality, which require mixing the two classical models, appear to be only superficially developed. Our findings open avenues for future research on students’ mental models of waves and particles as basis for wave-particle duality.

S. Brandt, Hans Dieter Dahmen

Nilüfer Didiş Körhasan, Kelly Miller

In this study, we investigated students’ mental models of wave–particle duality. We interviewed six engineering and premedical students enrolled in a calculus-based physics course. We conducted a qualitative examination of student interviews and found that students displayed four different mental models: quantum model (QM), semi-quantum model (SQM), wave model (WM), and in-between model (IM). We also found that 2/3 of the students had difficulty discriminating between classical and quantum ideas and held mental models that were inconsistent and context-specific. This work provides a much-needed detailed exploration of students’ conceptions of quantum theory, which will help instructors understand conceptual barriers frequently encountered by introductory students.

T. P. Billam, Christoph Weiß

Elio Conte

In quantum mechanics a wave function is connected to a quantum system. This abstract entity represents a description of the quantum state of this system. The wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude and the probabilities for the possible results of measurements made on the system can be derived from it . In the present paper it is demonstrated that the tentative often adopted from scholars to attribute a wave function as representation of a mental state in current quantum cognition studies cannot be accepted. A mental state is a so complex structure , depending contextually at each instant from a so complex structure of inner and subjective elements and psychological and neurological components, to exclude its representation by a simple and elementary wave function, The mental state may be represented by a quantum wave function that, owing of the complex structure of the mental state, has an intrinsic indetermination and fluctuation of the basic probability amplitudes to respond to the basic notion of intrinsecally , incompletely specified system that was introduced by P. T. Landsberg in 1961. As consequence a simple quantum wave function cannot be adopted and instead an averaging statistical formulation is absolutely required. Therefore, the subsequent quantum statistical theory is formulated.