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Machine Learning with R

You're reading from   Machine Learning with R Learn techniques for building and improving machine learning models, from data preparation to model tuning, evaluation, and working with big data

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Product type Paperback
Published in May 2023
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781801071321
Length 762 pages
Edition 4th Edition
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Author (1):
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Brett Lantz Brett Lantz
Author Profile Icon Brett Lantz
Brett Lantz
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Table of Contents (18) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Introducing Machine Learning 2. Managing and Understanding Data FREE CHAPTER 3. Lazy Learning – Classification Using Nearest Neighbors 4. Probabilistic Learning – Classification Using Naive Bayes 5. Divide and Conquer – Classification Using Decision Trees and Rules 6. Forecasting Numeric Data – Regression Methods 7. Black-Box Methods – Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines 8. Finding Patterns – Market Basket Analysis Using Association Rules 9. Finding Groups of Data – Clustering with k-means 10. Evaluating Model Performance 11. Being Successful with Machine Learning 12. Advanced Data Preparation 13. Challenging Data – Too Much, Too Little, Too Complex 14. Building Better Learners 15. Making Use of Big Data 16. Other Books You May Enjoy
17. Index

Measuring performance for classification

In the previous chapters, we measured classifier accuracy by dividing the number of correct predictions by the total number of predictions. This finds the proportion of cases in which the learner is correct, and the proportion of incorrect cases follows directly. For example, suppose that a classifier correctly predicted whether newborn babies were a carrier of a treatable but potentially fatal genetic defect in 99,990 out of 100,000 cases. This would imply an accuracy of 99.99 percent and an error rate of only 0.01 percent.

At first glance, this appears to be an extremely valuable classifier. However, it would be wise to collect additional information before trusting a child’s life to the test. What if the genetic defect is found in only 10 out of every 100,000 babies? A test that invariably predicts no defect will be correct for 99.99 percent of all cases, but incorrect for 100 percent of the cases that matter most. In other words...

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