5/23/2017 FalsepositivesandfalsenegativesWikipedia

Falsepositivesandfalsenegatives
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Inmedicalstatistics,falsepositivesandfalsenegativesareconceptsanalogoustotypeIandtypeIIerrorsin
statisticalhypothesistesting,whereapositiveresultcorrespondstorejectingthenullhypothesis,andanegative
resultcorrespondstonotrejectingthenullhypothesis.Thetermsareoftenusedinterchangeably,butthereare
differencesindetailandinterpretation.

Contents
1 Falsepositiveerror
2 Falsenegativeerror
3 Relatedterms
3.1 Falsepositiveandfalsenegativerates
3.2 Receiveroperatingcharacteristic
4 Consequences
5 Notes
6 References
7 Externallinks

Falsepositiveerror
Afalsepositiveerror,orinshortfalsepositive,commonlycalleda"falsealarm",isaresultthatindicatesa
givenconditionhasbeenfulfilled,whenithasnot.I.e.erroneouslyapositiveeffecthasbeenassumed.Inthecase
of"cryingwolf"theconditiontestedforwas"isthereawolfneartheherd?"theresultwasthattherehadnot
beenawolfneartheherd.Theshepherdwronglyindicatedtherewasone,bycalling"Wolf,wolf!"

AfalsepositiveerrorisatypeIerrorwherethetestischeckingasinglecondition,andresultsinanaffirmativeor
negativedecisionusuallydesignatedas"trueorfalse".[1]

Falsenegativeerror
Afalsenegativeerror,orinshortfalsenegative,iswhereatestresultindicatesthataconditionfailed,whileit
wassuccessful.I.e.erroneouslynoeffecthasbeenassumed.Acommonexampleisaguiltyprisonerfreedfrom
jail.Thecondition:"Istheprisonerguilty?"istrue(yes,theprisonerisguilty).Butthetest(acourtoflaw)failed
torealizethis,andwronglydecidedtheprisonerwasnotguilty.

AfalsenegativeerrorisatypeIIerroroccurringinteststepswhereasingleconditionischeckedforandtheresult
caneitherbepositiveornegative.[2]

Relatedterms
Falsepositiveandfalsenegativerates

Thefalsepositiverateistheproportionofallnegativesthatstillyieldpositivetestoutcomes,i.e.,theconditional
probabilityofapositivetestresultgivenaneventthatwasnotpresent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_positives_and_false_negatives 1/3