Formal logic is a framework that cognitive scientists use to try to understand how the brain functions. It looks into how people make inferences, how they deduce and how they organize information. It attempts to model human computation by connecting the mental images used in thinking with the concepts of logic, including inductive and deductive procedures.
Cognitive scientists look at how human knowledge is gleaned through cause-and-effect analysis. The if-then schema is how humans internally and subconsciously construct rules about their own thoughts. These rules of thinking allow humans to seek solutions and generate new models of rules. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, computational models have simulated skill acquisition in language through the construct of rules.
The human thinking phenomena of problem solving, explanation, linguistic communication and decision making are all aided by analogies, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. When confronted with new information, human beings often rely on visual mental representations or images that have already been understood, in an attempt to piece new information into coherent order. The process of retrieval and mapping allows for analogies to exist in the mind, which humans can then use in acquiring new knowledge.
Mental representations of visual and spatial information are used in human thinking to condense longer verbal descriptions into coherent information, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Manipulating mental images aids in metaphorical language understanding and general learning. Brain scans have shown a link between reasoning and mental imagery.
According to the Elderly Journal, cognitive science, or the study of brain cognition, is the study of human information dispensation and how it affects a person's psychology. It includes the disciplines of psychology, artificial intelligence, linguistics, neuroscience, anthropology and philosophy.