  We present a generalization of the problem of pattern recognition to
arbitrary probabilistic models. This version deals with the problem of
recognizing an individual pattern among a family of different species or
classes of objects which obey probabilistic laws which do not comply with
Kolmogorov's axioms. We show that such a scenario accommodates many important
examples, and in particular, we provide a rigorous definition of the classical
and the quantum pattern recognition problems, respectively. Our framework
allows for the introduction of non-trivial correlations (as entanglement or
discord) between the different species involved, opening the door to a new way
of harnessing these physical resources for solving pattern recognition
problems. Finally, we present some examples and discuss the computational
complexity of the quantum pattern recognition problem, showing that the most
important quantum computation algorithms can be described as non-Kolmogorovian
pattern recognition problems.
