A Quantum Model of Arousal and Yerkes Dodson Law

We present the Oscillating Field Perturbation (OFP) model, a quantum model that provides a quantitative account of the Yerkes-Dodson law concerning the relationship between arousal and performance. Inspired by neural models, OFP conceptualizes cognitive control as an oscillating field that perturbs a quantum system, and represents arousal as the ``gain'' induced by this field. By integrating OFP with the Multiple Particle Multiple Well (MPMW) framework, we demonstrate that OFP successfully explains how the shape of the Yerkes-Dodson law varies with task difficulty and familiarity, consistent with empirical findings. To the best of the authors' knowledge, OFP is the first model to provide a unified account of the empirical variations in the shape of the Yerkes-Dodson law.