Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

ROC curves predicted by a model of visual search

D P Chakraborty

Show affiliations


In imaging tasks where the observer is uncertain whether lesions are present, and where they could be present, the image is searched for lesions. In the free-response paradigm, which closely reflects this task, the observer provides data in the form of a variable number of mark-rating pairs per image. In a companion paper a statistical model of visual search has been proposed that has parameters characterizing the perceived lesion signal-to-noise ratio, the ability of the observer to avoid marking non-lesion locations, and the ability of the observer to find lesions. The aim of this work is to relate the search model parameters to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves that would result if the observer reported the rating of the most suspicious finding on an image as the overall rating. Also presented are the probability density functions (pdfs) of the underlying latent decision variables corresponding to the highest rating for normal and abnormal images. The search-model-predicted ROC curves are 'proper' in the sense of never crossing the chance diagonal and the slope is monotonically changing. They also have the interesting property of not allowing the observer to move the operating point continuously from the origin to (1, 1). For certain choices of parameters the operating points are predicted to be clustered near the initial steep region of the curve, as has been observed by other investigators. The pdfs are non-Gaussians, markedly so for the abnormal images and for certain choices of parameter values, and provide an explanation for the well-known observation that experimental ROC data generally imply a wider pdf for abnormal images than for normal images. Some features of search-model-predicted ROC curves and pdfs resemble those predicted by the contaminated binormal model, but there are significant differences. The search model appears to provide physical explanations for several aspects of experimental ROC curves.


PACS

87.57.R- Computer-aided diagnosis

87.57.C- Image quality

02.50.Cw Probability theory

Subjects

Computational physics

Medical physics

Dates

Issue 14 (21 July 2006)

Received 16 March 2006, in final form 2 June 2006

Published 6 July 2006



  1. ROC curves predicted by a model of visual search

    D P Chakraborty 2006 Phys. Med. Biol. 51 3463

  2. A class of Poisson–Nijenhuis structures on a tangent bundle

    W Sarlet and F Vermeire 2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 6319

  3. Asymptotically null slices in numerical relativity: mathematical analysis and spherical wave equation tests

    Gioel Calabrese et al 2006 Class. Quantum Grav. 23 4829

  4. The normal conformal Cartan connection and the Bach tensor

    Mikołaj Korzyński and Jerzy Lewandowski 2003 Class. Quantum Grav. 20 3745

  5. Time-dependent Ionization in Radiatively Cooling Gas

    Orly Gnat and Amiel Sternberg 2007 ApJS 168 213

  6. A high-precision photoelectric polarimeter

    E J Gillham 1957 J. Sci. Instrum. 34 435

  7. Cold valleys in cluster radioactivity

    Ş Mişicu and W Greiner 2003 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 29 L67

  8. Observation of a 6p-6d giant dipole resonance in the VUV photoabsorption spectrum of a laser-produced thorium plasma

    O Meighan et al 1999 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 32 L285

  9. Annihilation assisted upconversion: all-organic, flexible and transparent multicolour display

    Tzenka Miteva et al 2008 New J. Phys. 10 103002

  10. Lorentzian wormholes generalize thermodynamics still further

    Prado Martín-Moruno and Pedro F González-Díaz 2009 Class. Quantum Grav. 26 215010

Related review articles

What's this?
View review articles related to this research to gain an insight into the key trends in this subject area. Related review articles are selected based on PACS/MSC codes, and are no more than three years old.

  1. SPECT detectors: the Anger Camera and beyond
  2. Review and current status of SPECT scatter correction
  3. Dynamic single photon emission computed tomography—basic principles and cardiac applications
More

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.