Original practice · fully worked
Original variant: alteration risk after a clean screen
A document archive contains 12% altered files. A screening rule flags 85% of altered files and incorrectly flags 6% of unaltered files. One file is selected at random and receives no flag. Determine the conditional probability that this file is altered.
- A
0.01800 - B
0.02130 - C
0.06000 - D
0.15000 - E
0.97870
Answer and calculation
An altered-and-unflagged file has probability 0.018, while the total no-flag probability is 0.8452. Their ratio is 0.02130, choice B.
Setup
Setup
Convert the two flag rates to no-flag rates for altered and unaltered files.
Pr(N∣A)=1−0.85=0.15 Pr(N∣Ac)=1−0.06=0.94 Model
Model
Compute the two mutually exclusive contributions to receiving no flag.
Pr(A∩N)=(0.12)(0.15)=0.018 Pr(Ac∩N)=(0.88)(0.94)=0.8272 Compute
Compute
Normalize the altered contribution within all unflagged files.
Pr(N)=0.018+0.8272=0.8452 Pr(A∣N)=0.84520.018=0.0212967 Answer
Answer
The posterior alteration probability is about 2.13%.
0.02130(B)