A presentation talking about Observation, Reasoning & Inference

1. OBSERVATION &
INFERENCE
by– Kaushik Iyer

2. Observation
 An observation is an experience perceived
through one or more senses.
 It’s what you see, hear, smell or sense.
 In more scientific terms, to observe is only to
collect data based on what you see, hear,
sense or smell & nothing more.

3. So what do you make of the
picture??
 What’s your observation??
 Can you guess what happened??
 There’s a key difference in both questions!

4. Things aren’t always what they
seem to be.
 When observing…..only observe. Do not make
any assumptions or come with any
presumptions
 Remember…..It’s never too early to from an
opinion.
 Your observation largely depends on What
question you ask yourself when you see an
incident.

5. Notice a difference when you
observe carefully
A Chinese letter
or the word
CHINA
A side-pic of a
Red-Indian or an
Eskimo entering
his Igloo
AB < BC?
Or
AB = BC
Upside Down or
Right side Up?

6. What to avoid during observation
 One should never draw a conclusion on the
basis of initial observation; since there may be
some information or observation which you
might have missed.
 Or there are certain facts which you may not be
aware of yet.
 Which is why to reach any conclusion one
needs to reason & analyze

7. What is Reasoning?
 Reasoning is the cognitive process connecting
or collating your observations and derive by
logic or an educated guess the cause & effect
of the incident.
 When you extrapolate what you observed &
create a holistic interpretation about the
sequence of events leading to the incident
without any bias.

8. Ways of Reasoning
 Deductive: Where you infer from one premise to the
other & reach a conclusion; If A=B & B=C means
A=C.
 Inductive: This is quite opposite to Deductive
reasoning, here there is a series of data & patterns
from the data form a general conclusion. Eg. Sun will
rise from the east since it has always risen from
the east.
 Abductive: When there’s lack of data, evidence or
premise available you form a hypothesis & then test
for its validity. Doctor’s often use Abductive reasoning;
they usually recommend tests to confirm their
diagnosis even if it is an observed pattern.

9. Inference
A green liquid is leaking, is it toxic?
“There’s no warning label on the drums so it may
not be toxic, But it’s not evident”
How did the Drums fall?:- A person, an animal I
don’t find any evidence of someone getting injured
here. I’m I the first to arrive after the incident?
“I think no one knows about this yet”. I should
inform this immediately to the emergency service
since I’m not certain if this is Toxic or if anyone
is injured”