Observation & Inference

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Observation and Inference David R. Ayala Everest University Online Observation and Inference In order to be effective in our decision making and to effectively communicate we should be aware of fact and inference. Even though the human brain is one of the most intricate thinking machines on this planet we are still vulnerable in that we can risk misperceptions and misunderstandings if we don’t distinguish our inferences from fact. It’s our five humanistic senses that help us distinguish between fact and inference because, fact is based on observation, and inference is based on interpretations of our observations, and the reason to distinguish between the two is because it is necessary for engaging in competent interpersonal communication. It’s our five basic human senses that help us distinguish between fact and inference. Seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting are the five senses we can use to help us take in information to describe our observations of the world around us. With our eyes we can see things. With our ears with listen and can hear things. With our nose we can smell things we can describe. Our body and our fingers we can touch things and describe the way something might feel. Last but not least of the five senses is taste, it helps us take in information using our pallet to describe the way something tastes. All of these senses help us to observe our surroundings. For instance when we look at Figure 1 below and we can make an observation and see that it’s a picture of 1 hamburger with 2 patties on a sesame seed bun with a tomato and next to it are French fries. Fig. 1 Fact is based on observation. There are two kinds of observations. There are quantitative observations and there are qualitative observations (YouJustGotSmarter, 2012). Quantitative observation is anything that has a quantity in the
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