Hidden variables, free choice, context-independence, and all that

Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov

Published 2023-05-25Version 1

This paper provides a systematic account of the hidden variable models (HVMs) formulated to describe systems of random variables with mutually exclusive contexts. Any such system can be equivalently described either by a model with free choice but generally context-dependent mapping of the hidden variables into observable ones, or by a model with context-independent mapping but generally compromised free choice. These two HVMs are unfalsifiable, applicable to all possible systems. This implies that freedom of choice and context-independent mapping are no assumptions at all, and they tell us nothing about freedom of choice or physical influences exerted by contexts as these notions would be understood in science and philosophy. The conjunction of these two notions, however, defines a falsifiable HVM that describes noncontextuality when applied to systems with no disturbance or to consistifications of arbitrary systems. This HVM is most adequately captured by the term ``context-irrelevance,'' meaning that no distribution in the model changes with context.