Bayes' Theorem and Probability Distributions

02/10/2021

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Outline

  • The following topics will be covered in this lecture:

    • Bayes' theorem
    • Random variables
    • Probability distributions
    • Probability Mass Functions

Bayes’ Theorem

  • Let us suppose that \( A \) and \( B \) are events for which \( P(A)\neq 0 \) and \( P(B)\neq 0 \).
  • Consider the statement of the multiplication rule, \[ P(A \cap B) = P(A\vert B) P(B); \]
  • yet it is also true that, \[ P(B \cap A) = P(B \vert A) P(A); \]
  • and \( P( A \cap B) = P(B \cap A) \) by definition.
  • Putting these statements together, we obtain, \[ \begin{align} &P(A\vert B) P(B) = P(B \vert A ) P(A)\\ \Leftrightarrow & P(A \vert B) = \frac{P(B\vert A) P(A)}{ P(B)} \end{align} \]
  • The statement that \[ P(A \vert B) = \frac{P(B\vert A) P(A)}{ P(B)} \] is known as Bayes' theorem for \( P(B)>0 \).
  • This is nothing more than re-writing the multiplication rule as discussed above, but the result is extremely powerful.
  • Bayes' theorem wasn’t widely used in statistics for hundreds of years, until advances in digital computers.
  • When digital computers became available, many tools became available using Bayes' theorem as the basis.

Bayes' theorem continued

  • Often, Bayes \[ P(A \vert B) = \frac{P(B\vert A) P(A)}{ P(B)} \] is used as a way to update the probability of \( A \) when you have new information \( B \).
    • For example, let the events \( A= \)"it snows in the Sierra" and \( B= \)"it rains in my garden".
    • I might think there is a \( P(A) \) prior probability for snow, without knowing any other information.
    • \( P(A\vert B) \) is the posterior probability of snow in the Sierra given rain in my garden.
    • If I found out later in the day that there was rain in my garden, I could update \( P(A) \) to \( P(A\vert B) \) by multiplying \[ P(A\vert B) = P(A) \times \left(\frac{P(B\vert A)}{P(B)}\right) \] directly.
    • Although this is a simplistic example, this logic is the basis of many weather prediction techniques.

Bayes' theorem example 1

  • EXAMPLE: suppose that 20% of email messages are spam. The word free occurs in 60% of the spam messages. 13% of the overall messages contain the word free.

  • Question: How can we use Bayes' theorem,

    \[ P(A\vert B) = \frac{P(B\vert A) P(A)}{P(B)} \] to compute the probability of a message being spam, given that it includes the word “free”?

    • Let the events be
    • \( S= \) “message is spam” \[ P(S)=0.2 \]
    • \( F= \) “message contains the word free” \[ P(F)=0.13 \]
    • We are looking for \( P(S|F) \)
    • The probability of a message that has free in it given that is spam is \[ P(F|S)=0.6 \]
    • From Bayes' theorem \[ P(S|F)=\frac{P(F|S)P(S)}{P(F)} \]
    • \[ P(S|F)=\frac{0.6(0.2)}{0.13}=0.923 \]

Bayes' theorem example 2

Table of high contamination levels during chip manufacturing

Courtesy of Montgomery & Runger, Applied Statistics and Probability for Engineers, 7th edition

  • EXAMPLE: recall the chips subject to high levels of contamination. The information is summarized in the table on the left.
  • Question: How can we use Bayes' theorem, \[ P(A\vert B) = \frac{P(B\vert A) P(A)}{P(B)} \] to find the conditional probability of a high level of contamination present, given that a failure occurred?
    • Let the events be
      • \( H= \)"chip is exposed to high levels of contamination" \[ P(H)=0.20 \]
      • \( F= \)"product fails"
      • Earlier we computed \( P(F) \) using the total probability rule as \[ P(F)=P(F|H)P(H)+P(F|H')P(H')=0.024 \] with \[ P(F|H)=0.10 \text{ and } P(F\vert H') = 0.005 \]
    • The probability of \( P(H | F) \) is determined from Bayes' theorem \[ \begin{align} P(H|F)&=\frac{P(F|H)P(H)}{P(F)} =\frac{0.10(0.20)}{0.024}=0.83\end{align} \]

Random Variables

Probability distribution for two coin flips with x number of heads.

Courtesy of Mario Triola, Essentials of Statistics, 6th edition

  • The first concept that we will need to develop is the random variable.
  • Prototypically, we can consider the coin flipping example from the motivation:
    • \( x \) is the number heads in two coin flips.
  • Every time we repeat two coin flips \( x \) can take a different value due to many possible factors:
    • how much force we apply in the flip;
    • air pressure;
    • wind speed;
    • etc…
  • The result is so sensitive to these factors that are beyond our ability to control, we consider the result to be by chance.
  • Before we flip the coin twice, the value of \( x \) has yet-to-be determined.
  • After we flip the coin twice, the value of \( x \) is fixed and possibly known.
  • Formally we will define:
  • Random Variable
    A random variable is a function that assigns a real number to each outcome in the sample space of a random experiment.
  • Notation
    A random variable is denoted by an uppercase letter such as \( X \). After an experiment is conducted, the measured value of the random variable is denoted by a lowercase letter such as \( x \)

Random variables continued