A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a graphical plot that illustrates the diagnostic ability of a binary classifier system as its discrimination threshold is varied. Parameters: a binary classifier, a set of decision thresholds, and the resulting true positive rate (sensitivity) and false positive rate (1 − specificity) at each threshold. The curve is constructed by plotting TPR against FPR for every possible threshold, and the area under the curve (AUC) summarizes overall discriminative performance. It persists as a visual-analytic instrument in statistical decision theory, machine learning evaluation, and signal detection. [formal: roc-curve | substrate: mind | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
receiver operating characteristic
A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a graphical plot that illustrates the diagnostic ability of a binary classifier system as its discrimination threshold is varied. Parameters: a binary classifier, a set of decision thresho…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A human-made visualization technique in statistical decision theory that plots the trade-off between true positive rate and false positive rate across all classification thresholds. Built to persist as a formal analytical instrument used in machine learning, medical diagnostics, and signal detection theory.
Names and aliases
- receiver operating characteristicen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmsd1etqn03ei3vv36o2bf0rfDEPENDS_ON →
ROC is literally derived from confusion matrix statistics: TPR = TP/(TP+FN), FPR = FP/(FP+TN). Remove the confusion matrix concept and ROC stops operating — its coordinates lose meaning. Operational dependency per Law 8.
- cmrxqh5nw03vksoac1tgfpgi9INSTANCE_OF →
An ROC curve is a specific kind of chart — a two-dimensional plot with TPR on y-axis and FPR on x-axis. A competent speaker calls it a chart. Files against nearest accepted kind 'chart'.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Aug 4, 2026, 11:47 PM UTC
- Content hash
- 3b147b2bb63626696ab9e53141fc51c5225169368ea0edececb03d68429dffa2