Observation Skills

If our thinking is based on hasty observations, then, no matter how well-reasoned our thinking, it will be faulty. Thus, our ability to think well depends upon our ability to observe well. While most of us won’t be like Jane Goodall, who has spent decades observing chimpanzees, we can learn to be better observers than we are already.

Here’s an exercise to try. Look at a photograph in a book, newspaper, or magazine and write a one-paragraph description of it. Try to describe it so that someone reading your description will be able to visualize the photo without actually seeing it. Have at least one other person do the same exercise with the same photo. Now, compare and discuss your descriptions. How can you explain any differences? In doing this exercise, you may discover that:

·       Glancing is not the same as seeing.

·       We look for what is familiar to us.

·       If we can’t find the familiar, we may distort what we see so that it seems familiar.

·       We might differ as to which details are relevant.

To observe means to hold something in front of us. Ob (Latin prefix) = in front of, servare = keep, hold, watch, pay attention. 

(See Marlys Mayfield, Thinking for Yourself, pp 12-14)