Talk:Latent and observable variables

This could do with some links to related topics

I don't think that Latent variable model and Latent variable should be merged - they're different concepts, and neither is obviously a subcategory of the other. The articles currently contain quite different information, so this isn't a case where there is duplication of effort happening. I believe (thought it is not my field of mathematics) that the use of the term Latent variable is much wider than its article implies, and includes situations quite unrelated to Latent variable models. Chrisjohnson 01:38, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. A Latent variable model is a particular statistical model, while the concept of latent variable is a broad concept of a variable with unobserved outcomes. They aren't the same thing at all. A latent variable model does use the concept in the framework of a statistical model so might be considered a subset of the concept of latent variables, but it's a very specific subset that veers of in it's own direction. The should stay seperate. (Gary Carson)