The Cognitive Processes of Formal Inferences

Theoretical research is predominately an inductive process; while applied research is mainly a deductive process. Both inference processes are based on the cognitive process and means of abstraction. This article describes the cognitive processes of formal inferences such as deduction, induction, abduction, and analogy. Conventional propositional arguments adopt static causal inference. This article introduces more rigorous and dynamic inference methodologies, which are modeled and described as a set of cognitive processes encompassing a series of basic inference steps. A set of mathematical models of formal inference methodologies is developed. Formal descriptions of the four forms of cognitive processes of inferences are presented using Real-Time Process Algebra (RTPA). The cognitive processes and mental mechanisms of inferences are systematically explored and rigorously modeled. Applications of abstraction and formal inferences in both the revilement of the fundamental mechanisms of the brain and the investigation of next generation cognitive computers are explored.