The Difference Between Observation and Inference
An observation is something that you "look" and "record" as a statement. It can be as
simple as "It is bright outside." Or "The swans in the lake are white." Or even, "The song
<insert name of the song you like> is nice." Note that all of the "records" thus made are
statements, and may be true or false.
Inference is a procedure of logical reasoning, akin to deduction and abduction, that uses
such observations to make/derive other statement(s). An example of inference is,
A1: The 1st swan is white.
A2: The 2nd swan is white.
A3: The 3rd swan is white.
...
Ak: The kth swan is white.
b: All swans are white.
Note that here, we have not seen all the swans that are in the world, only k swans that
just all happened to be white. While all the statements A1 to Ak may be true, we can not
be a 100% sure that b is also true.
It just takes us the observation one non-white swan to say that b is false. But until then,
for practical purposes, we say "All swans are white."
PS: In case you haven't seen non-white swans, they do exist.
Some Additional Information:
According to Wikipedia,
1. Deductive reasoning allows you to derive a statement, b, if and only if it follows
as a logical consequence of a set of other statements, A.
2. Inductive reasoning allows you to derive a statement, b, from a set of
statements, A, even though A may not ensure b.
3. Abductive reasoning allows you to infer the set of statements, A, given b, even
if you are not sure that b is a consequent of A.
Observation is gathering data. Merely looking at something is observation. Anything
that you can perceive with your senses is something you can observe.
An inference is, as I was taught in fourth grade, an "educated guess", an idea formed by
processing data gathered through observation. When we infer something, we put this
idea up for verification, wherein we try to test if our inference, or our hypothesis, was
correct.
For example, if I observe that a box has the label "Paint" on it, I could make
an inference that the box contains paint, but I wouldn't know for sure until I opened
the box and observed that there was indeed paint inside the box.
Observation and making inferences are parts of the scientific method, which, as the
name implies, is the method we follow when we do science, i.e. when we try to find out
new things.
Inference - Conclusion based on facts observed relevant with subject of observation.
Observation - Careful study of subject.
For example,
Suppose my friend and I are talking, but he seemed less interested.
"He seemed less interested" is inference I have made observing his body language as we
were talking ( like "moving eyes" "restless tapping of feet" - these are observations )
Source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-inference-and-
observation
It is important to distinguish between observations and inferences. The
colors and color changes, the temperature and temperature changes, the
smells that you may come across in this lesson and throughout this course
are directly observed and they can be classified as observations. When
you dosomething with that observation, like draw a conclusion or offer
an explanation or decide that a chemical reaction occurred, then you
are making an inference. The inference may or may not be a correct
one. Correctness is not what makes the difference between observation
and inference.
An observation is the awareness of some condition; inference is the
result of a mental process which attempts to explain or catalog or
speculate about that observation. So far we have had several examples of
observations (and measurements as well), but we have not really talked
about inferences. A few examples might help to illustrate the point.
In this picture, you can observe that
there is some white material up in the
air. One of the inferences that you might
make is that you are looking at the
picture of a cloud. Another inference you
might make is that there was a brush fire
in the direction that the the picture was taken, or perhaps Mt. St. Helens
has erupted again after all these years. Whether or not any of those
statements is true is beside the point at the moment. Saying that it is a
picture of a cloud is an inference. Observing the white stuff behind the
trees and building is the observation.
There are times when observations and inferences are very much
intertwined with one another and then it can be very difficult to make
the distinction. This is because observation and inference both are
mental processes. An example of this is a mirage or an optical illusion.
If you have ever seen the light
shimmering off the road or countryside
out in the desert, it looks like water.
That is an inference. What you are
observing is the reflection of the light,
and you are inferring that it is reflecting off water.
Here is another possible example of an optical
illusion. In this diagram of two tabletops submitted to
the April 1998 issue of "The Physics Teacher" by
Martin Gardner, you have probably inferred that the
tabletop on the left is longer than the tabletop on the
right. If you were to make a copy of this diagram from
the original article and superimpose the two you would find that they are
the same size and shape. (The display on the screen and on your printer
may be slightly distorted.) Your inference seems to be an observation,
but it is not. However, your mind is making the inference at such a basic
level that it appears to be an observation.
In the diagrams shown here the
closely spaced blue and yellow lines
take on a different appearance where
they overlap. Indeed, the white
portions of the screen background
that you are looking at is not really
white, but rather closely spaced blue,
green and red dots that your brain
has blended together and interpreted
as white.
So, observations and inferences are sometimes a bit hard to distinguish
from one another. But for the most part, if you are careful about making
the distinction, at least in this course, you won't have too much trouble
figuring out what is an observation and what is an inference. Making
inferences involves knowing how to look beyond what you actually
observe, and to know that you are doing it. Remember that the point
here is not that observations are correct and inferences are incorrect, but
rather that there is a difference and that you need to know what that
difference is.
