Last Updated on July 31, 2020 It is common in statistics and machine learning to create a linear transform or mapping of a variable. An example is a linear scaling of a feature variable. We have the natural intuition that the mean of the scaled values is the same as the scaled value of the mean raw variable values. This makes sense. Unfortunately, we bring this intuition with us when using nonlinear transformations of variables where this relationship no longer […]

Last Updated on September 25, 2019 A Naive Classifier is a simple classification model that assumes little to nothing about the problem and the performance of which provides a baseline by which all other models evaluated on a dataset can be compared. There are different strategies that can be used for a naive classifier, and some are better than others, depending on the dataset and the choice of performance measures. The most common performance measure is classification accuracy and common […]

Last Updated on September 25, 2019 Machine Learning is a field of computer science concerned with developing systems that can learn from data. Like statistics and linear algebra, probability is another foundational field that supports machine learning. Probability is a field of mathematics concerned with quantifying uncertainty. Many aspects of machine learning are uncertain, including, most critically, observations from the problem domain and the relationships learned by models from that data. As such, some understanding of probability and tools and […]

Last Updated on November 8, 2019 Probability is a field of mathematics that quantifies uncertainty. It is undeniably a pillar of the field of machine learning, and many recommend it as a prerequisite subject to study prior to getting started. This is misleading advice, as probability makes more sense to a practitioner once they have the context of the applied machine learning process in which to interpret it. In this post, you will discover why machine learning practitioners should study […]

Last Updated on September 25, 2019 Applied machine learning requires managing uncertainty. There are many sources of uncertainty in a machine learning project, including variance in the specific data values, the sample of data collected from the domain, and in the imperfect nature of any models developed from such data. Managing the uncertainty that is inherent in machine learning for predictive modeling can be achieved via the tools and techniques from probability, a field specifically designed to handle uncertainty. In […]

Last Updated on November 29, 2019 Uncertainty involves making decisions with incomplete information, and this is the way we generally operate in the world. Handling uncertainty is typically described using everyday words like chance, luck, and risk. Probability is a field of mathematics that gives us the language and tools to quantify the uncertainty of events and reason in a principled manner. In this post, you will discover a gentle introduction to probability. After reading this post, you will know: […]

Last Updated on November 14, 2019 Probability can be used for more than calculating the likelihood of one event; it can summarize the likelihood of all possible outcomes. A thing of interest in probability is called a random variable, and the relationship between each possible outcome for a random variable and their probabilities is called a probability distribution. Probability distributions are an important foundational concept in probability and the names and shapes of common probability distributions will be familiar. The […]

Last Updated on February 10, 2020 The probability for a discrete random variable can be summarized with a discrete probability distribution. Discrete probability distributions are used in machine learning, most notably in the modeling of binary and multi-class classification problems, but also in evaluating the performance for binary classification models, such as the calculation of confidence intervals, and in the modeling of the distribution of words in text for natural language processing. Knowledge of discrete probability distributions is also required […]

Last Updated on September 25, 2019 The probability for a continuous random variable can be summarized with a continuous probability distribution. Continuous probability distributions are encountered in machine learning, most notably in the distribution of numerical input and output variables for models and in the distribution of errors made by models. Knowledge of the normal continuous probability distribution is also required more generally in the density and parameter estimation performed by many machine learning models. As such, continuous probability distributions […]

Last Updated on July 24, 2020 Probability density is the relationship between observations and their probability. Some outcomes of a random variable will have low probability density and other outcomes will have a high probability density. The overall shape of the probability density is referred to as a probability distribution, and the calculation of probabilities for specific outcomes of a random variable is performed by a probability density function, or PDF for short. It is useful to know the probability […]