Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c78cf97d-bzm8f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-01T20:40:11.359Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Logic-Based Modeling of Cognition

from Part II - Cognitive Modeling Paradigms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2023

Ron Sun
Affiliation:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York
Get access

Summary

After a brief orientation to logic-based (computational) cognitive modeling, the necessary preliminaries are discussed in this chapter (e.g., what a logic is, and what it is for one to “capture" human cognition are explained). Three “microworlds" or domains that all readers should be comfortably familiar with (natural numbers and arithmetic; everyday vehicles; and residential schools, e.g., colleges and universities) are introduced, in order to facilitate exposition in the chapter. Then the ever-expanding universe U of formal logics, with an emphasis on three categories therein, is given: deductive logics having no provision for directly modeling cognitive states; nondeductive logics suitable for modeling rational belief through time without machinery to directly model cognitive states such as believes and knows; and finally, nondeductive logics that enable the kind of direct modeling of cognitive states absent from the first two types of logic. Then, there follows a focus spcifically on two important aspects of human-level cognition to be modeled in logic-based fashion: the processing of quantification, and defeasible (or nonmonotonic) reasoning. Finally, a brief evaluation of logic-based cognitive modeling is provided, together with some comparison to other approaches to cognitive modeling, and the future of the discipline is considered. The chapter presupposes nothing more than high-school mathematics of the standard sort on the part of the reader.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×