Which term describes the process of deriving rules from examples, sometimes referred to as discovery learning?

• A. induction
• B. deduction
• C. analogy
• D. hypothesis

Answer: (A)

Induction is the process of deriving general rules from specific observations. When you see patterns across many examples, you infer a broad principle that explains them, which is why this aligns with discovery learning—you uncover the rule by examining data rather than being given the rule upfront. For instance, after observing several cases where a pattern holds, you formulate a general rule that applies beyond those cases. Deduction would use a known general rule to predict a specific outcome; analogy relies on similarity between cases to reason about a new situation; a hypothesis is a tentative explanation you test, not the general rule you infer from multiple examples.