Latent and observable variables: Difference between revisions

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Changing short description from "Variable that is not directly observed but is rather inferred (through a mathematical model) from other variables that are observed (directly measured)" to "Variable" (Shortdesc helper)
Changing short description from "Variable" to "Variable not directly observed" (Shortdesc helper)
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{{Short description|Variable not directly observed}}
In [[statistics]], '''latent variables''' (from [[Latin]]: [[present participle]] of ''lateo'' (“lie hidden”), opposed to [[observable variable]]s) are [[Variable (mathematics)|variables]] that are not directly observed but are rather [[Statistical inference|inferred]] through a [[mathematical model]] from other variables that are observed (directly measured). Mathematical models that aim to explain observed variables in terms of latent variables are called [[latent variable model]]s. Latent variable models are used in many disciplines, including [[psychology]], [[demography]], [[economics]], [[engineering]], [[medicine]], [[physics]], [[machine learning]]/[[artificial intelligence]], [[bioinformatics]], [[chemometrics]], [[natural language processing]], [[econometrics]], [[management]] and the [[social sciences]].