  We address the problem of whether parties who cannot communicate but share
nonsignaling quantum correlations between the outcomes of sharp measurements
can distinguish, just from the value of a correlation observable, whether their
outcomes were produced by sequential compatible measurements on single systems
or by measurements on spatially separated subsystems. We show that there are
quantum correlations between the outcomes of sequential measurements which
cannot be attained with spatially separated systems. We present examples of
correlations between spatially separated systems whose quantum maximum tends to
the sequential maximum as the number of parties increases and examples of
correlations between spatially separated systems whose quantum maximum fails to
violate the noncontextual bound while its corresponding sequential version
does.
