INFERENCE DEVICE

PURPOSE:To extremely reduce the load of a user when a hierarchical relationship between relations is set by setting automatically many other hierarchical relationships obtained logically by setting a single hierarchical relation. CONSTITUTION:A control device 6 controls each part of an inference device. An input device 1 is used when a user defines various hierarchical relationships between those frames stored in a frame type knowledge base 2. An inter-slot relationship control device 3 checks the adverse relationships out of the base 2 based on the information inputted from the device 1 and sets the necessary hierarchical relationships including said adverse ones. Thus the labor needed for the user to define the hierarchical relationship between adverse relationships can be omitted. An inference engine 4 performs inference by the deductive method based on the knowledge stored in the base 2 and outputs the result of this inference through an output device 5. In such a way, the load of the user can be extremely reduced when the hierarchical relationships are set.