That which is inferred; a truth or proposition drawn from another which is admitted or supposed to be true; a conclusion; a deduction
An inference is a conclusion that you draw about something by using information that you already have about it. There were two inferences to be drawn from her letter. = conclusion
the process of reasoning whereby one statement (the conclusion) is derived from one or more other statements (the premises)
(1) This is an umbrella term referring to a final outcome of a study The outcome may consist of a conclusion about, an understanding of, or an explanation for an event, a behavior, a relationship, or a case (2) This is “a conclusion reached” where there is either (a) a “deduction from premises that are accepted as true” or (b) an induction by “deriving a conclusion from factual statements taken as evidence for the conclusion” (Angeles, 1981, p 133) See also deductive inference (in research cycle), deductive logic, inductive inference (in research cycle), inductive logic, meta-inference (or integrated mixed inference), and retroductive inference Back to the top
a logical conclusion or judgment that is explicitly supported by data, evidence, and information gathered as part of the teacher evaluation process See Data, Evidence, High Inference, Information, Low Inference
A conclusion reached through reasoning Inference is used to reach conclusions when information is implied but not stated as a certainty
the reasoning involved in drawing a conclusion or making a logical judgment on the basis of circumstantial evidence and prior conclusions rather than on the basis of direct observation
An inference is reasoning based on observation and experience To infer is to arrive at a decision or opinion by reasoning from known facts For example, I can see that someone is smiling From this, I can infer from my experience that he is happy It is particularly easy to think that an inference is a fact It takes critical thinking to distinguish between the two In the example of the smiling student, I do not know that the student is happy He may be smiling for some other reason
Inference is the process of automatically adding new facts to a knowledge base by applying rules of inference to the axioms and already-inferred facts of the knowledge base CYC® currently uses two rules of inference in its general theorem proving, modus ponens and modus tollens
The movement of thought to a conclusion or generalization from starting points of premises or particular observations Inferences are generally categorized as either deductive or inductive