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Abductive reasoning

About: Abductive reasoning is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1917 publications have been published within this topic receiving 44645 citations. The topic is also known as: abduction & abductive inference.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine similarities and differences between two recent models of abductive reasoning, the Gabbay-Woods model and the Aliseda-Aliseda model.
Abstract: This is an examination of similarities and differences between two recent models of abductive reasoning. The one is developed in Atocha Aliseda's Abductive Reasoning: Logical Investigations into the Processes of Discovery and Evaluation (2006). The other is advanced by Dov Gabbay and the present author in their The Reach of Abduction: Insight and Trial (2005). A principal difference between the two approaches is that in the Gabbay- Woods model, but not in the Aliseda model, abductive inference is ignorance-preserving. A further differ- ence is that Aliseda reconstructs the abduction relation in a semantic tableaux environment, whereas the Woods-Gabbay model, while less systematic, is more general. Of particular note is the connection between abduction and legal reasoning.

15 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors extend the framework for modeling competence by including abductive reasoning, with impact on the whole modeling process, which can be understood as knowledge expanding in the process of model construction.
Abstract: While the hypothetico-deductive approach, which includes inductive and deductive reasoning, is largely recognized in scientific reasoning, there is not much focus on abductive reasoning. Abductive reasoning describes the theory-based attempt of explaining a phenomenon by a cause. By integrating abductive reasoning into a framework for modeling competence, we strengthen the idea of modeling being a key practice of science. The framework for modeling competence theoretically describes competence levels structuring the modeling process into model construction and model application. The aim of this theoretical paper is to extend the framework for modeling competence by including abductive reasoning, with impact on the whole modeling process. Abductive reasoning can be understood as knowledge expanding in the process of model construction. In combination with deductive reasoning in model application, such inferences might enrich modeling processes. Abductive reasoning to explain a phenomenon from the best fitting guess is important for model construction and may foster the deduction of hypotheses from the model and further testing them empirically. Recent studies and examples of learners’ performance in modeling processes support abductive reasoning being a part of modeling competence within scientific reasoning. The extended framework can be used for teaching and learning to foster scientific reasoning competences within modeling processes.

15 citations

Patent
20 May 1994
TL;DR: In this article, a computer implemented abductive reasoner checks for contradictions in reasoning operations during processing and determines subsequent processing dependent upon the results of the checking, where constraints on variables may be imposed to permit proofs to be pursued which otherwise would involve contradictions.
Abstract: A computer implemented abductive reasoner checks for contradictions in the reasoning operations during processing and determines subsequent processing dependent upon the results of the checking. Constraints on variables may be imposed to permit proofs to be pursued which otherwise would involve contradictions. Different types of abductive reasoning step may be assigned different costs and proofs or future processing steps selected dependent upon the costing. Alternatively or in addition, reasoning operations and the resulting proofs, if any, may be grouped according to the types of reasoning steps involved and provision may be included for pursuing operations involving less costly reasoning steps in preference or prior to operations which may be more costly. Where successive goals are to be proved, the proof of each successive goal may be performed by reference to hypotheses established in proofs of previous goals. In applications involving the production of control signals, commands defining required control signals may be provided in the form of premises in rules contained in a knowledge base with which the abducer operates and means may be provided for outputting said commands and converting them to the required control signals.

15 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Hans Lycke1
TL;DR: In order to explicate abductive reasoning more realistically, an alternative approach will be provided in this article, namely, one that is based on the adaptive logics programme.
Abstract: Most logic–based approaches characterize abduction as a kind of backwards deduction plus additional conditions, which means that a number of conditions is specified that enable one to decide whether or not a particular abductive inference is sound (one of those conditions may e.g. be that abductive consequences have to be compatible with the background theory). Despite the fact that these approaches succeed in specifying which formulas count as valid consequences of abductive inference steps, they do not explicate the way people actually reason by means of abductive inferences. This is most clearly shown by the absence of a decent proof theory. Instead, search procedures are provided that enable one to determine the right abductive consequences. However, these do not by far resemble human reasoning. In order to explicate abductive reasoning more realistically, an alternative approach will be provided in this article, namely, one that is based on the adaptive logics programme. Proof theoretically, this approach interprets the argumentation schema affirming the consequent (AC:

15 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A simple transformation of logic programs capable of inverting the order of computation is investigated, which may serve such purposes as left-recursion elimination, loop-elimination, simulation of forward reasoning, isotopic modification of programs and simulation of abductive reasoning.
Abstract: We investigate a simple transformation of logic programs capable of inverting the order of computation. Several examples are given which illustrate how this transformation may serve such purposes as left-recursion elimination, loop-elimination, simulation of forward reasoning, isotopic modification of programs and simulation of abductive reasoning.

14 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202356
2022103
202156
202059
201956
201867