Deductive Reasoning in Human Information Processing
Jonathan St. B. T. Evans · 1990
Abstract Information processing is the central concern of cognitive science and deductive reasoning is one of the most significant methods by which it is achieved. The programming language PROLOG, for example, designed for research into artificial intelligence, uses deductive reasoning based upon predicate logic as its basic method of operation. A deductive inference occurs whenever two or more pieces of information are taken together and some new information is derived as a consequence. Such reasoning has been central to the development of ‘expert systems’ (see Hayes-Roth et al. 1983)-one of the major fields of research into artificial intelligence in recent years. In attempting to simulate the function of a human expert such systems have generally been provided with huge databases of ‘facts’ and ‘rules’ together with an inference engine which permits deductions to be made.