Case-based reasoning

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Models of CBR memory, from top to bottom: category memory, simple memory, and dynamic memory. ^{[clarification needed][relevant?]}

In artificial intelligence and philosophy^{[verification needed]}, case-based reasoning (CBR), broadly construed, is the process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems.^[1][2]

In everyday life, an auto mechanic who fixes an engine by recalling another car that exhibited similar symptoms is using case-based reasoning. A lawyer who advocates a particular outcome in a trial based on legal precedents or a judge who creates case law is using case-based reasoning. So, too, an engineer copying working elements of nature (practicing biomimicry) is treating nature as a database of solutions to problems. Case-based reasoning is a prominent type of analogy solution making.

It has been argued^{[by whom?]} that case-based reasoning is not only a powerful method for computer reasoning, but also a pervasive behavior in everyday human problem solving; or, more radically, that all reasoning is based on past cases personally experienced. This view is related to prototype theory, which is most deeply explored in cognitive science.