Observation

Observation
1 a: an act or instance of observing a custom, rule, or law b: observance 3 2 a: an act of recognizing and noting a fact or occurrence often involving measurement with instruments b: a record or description so obtained 3: a judgment on or inference from what one has observed; broadly : remark statement 4obsolete : attentive care : heed 5: the condition of one that is observed 

Observation is the active process of a living being, an example being a human, which senses and assimilates the knowledge of a phenomenon or something new in its framework of previous knowledge and ideas. Observation is more than observing, it is the seeking to add to knowledge that separates from the mere act of observing. Often observations require scientifically proven tools in order to be reliable as a self-defined instrument is often impossible to replicate. The accuracy of science is mostly due to the accuracy of observation, and the repeatability of these observations.


 * Scientific Method of Observation:**
 * 'observe' a phenomenon,
 * 'Hypothesize' an explanation for the phenomenon,
 * 'predict' a logical consequence of the guess,
 * 'Test' the prediction, and
 * 'review' for any mistakes.


 * The Observer Effect:**
 * In the social sciences and general usage, the effect refers to how people change their behavior when aware of being watched
 * The related social-science term observer bias is error introduced into measurement when observers overemphasize behavior they expect to find and fail to notice behavior they do not expect.

Observational learning is learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and, in the case of imitation learning, replicating novel behavior executed by others.
 * Observational Learning**

Sources: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/observation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observational_learning

willem shepherd