specificity is a human-made evaluative dimension for descriptions, tests, and categories, measuring how narrowly a sign picks out a target class. Parameters: granularity of the description, the size of the target set, the cost of over-generalization, and the domain of application. It persists via methodological standards, statistical practice, and pedagogical conventions about precision. [formal: specificitas | substrate: mind | horizon: hours | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.05]
Accepted ontology entry
specificity
specificity is a human-made evaluative dimension for descriptions, tests, and categories, measuring how narrowly a sign picks out a target class. Parameters: granularity of the description, the size of the target set, the cost of over-gene…
Definition
Why it is in scope
Human-made statistical concept for evaluating binary classifiers: the true negative rate, measuring the proportion of actual negatives correctly identified. Built to persist through teaching, medical practice, and statistical methodology.
Names and aliases
- specificityen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrwiv1rn00a8soacg5vdpiogINSTANCE_OF →
Specificity is a metric used in binary classification to measure true negative rate (TN/(TN+FP)). It is a specific kind of metric that quantifies a classifier's ability to correctly identify negatives.
- cmsd1etqn03ei3vv36o2bf0rfDEPENDS_ON →
Specificity is computed as TN/(TN+FP) from a confusion matrix — remove the matrix and the metric's computation collapses. The rate only operates within the confusion matrix's four-cell structure.
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Record identity
- Created
- Aug 5, 2026, 1:53 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 6701b8f2d8187df7472ee2eba747faab1fcebab3c29c6d3e4003aec6bd38b0ed