Ladder of Inference

I came across this ladder of inference in my peregrinations. This is an area I have been thinking about for a while. Looking at the inference loop, I was dissatisfied with the loop and its implications. So I put together a different structure for what is going on.

It seems to me like there is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that we are consciously quite unaware of. As we come across phenomena (real experience), our neurologies use those phenomena to create assumptions about how the world works. What is up/down, important/less important, and so on. These sets of assumptions group (categorize) into beliefs. This system of beliefs then determines how we filter, what phenomena we are aware of, what meaning we assign to these experiences, what conclusions we draw from these meanings, and what actions (if any) these lead to. An example of this would be an unexpected reward. It could mean that

• one is a good person and deserves the reward
• one is favored by one's deity/deities
• one is lucky
• one is going to be unlucky later to balance the current luck
• and on an on ...

This ladder can be confusing in that the loop from experience to assumptions is happening at various levels:

• direct physical experience
• cultural / social experience
• vicarious experience through media
• ...?

Is it the same loop for all different types of experience? I am not sure.