Conditional Probability & Bayes’ Theorem #

Probability often changes when we learn new information.

Conditional probability and Bayes’ theorem give a structured way to update beliefs using evidence.

Conditional probability updates probabilities after observing an event.

Bayes’ theorem lets you estimate a hidden cause from observed evidence.

Naïve Bayes turns Bayes’ theorem into a practical classifier by assuming conditional independence of features given the class.

flowchart TD

A[Conditional<br/>probability] -->|foundation| B[Bayes<br/>theorem]
D[Independent<br/>events] -->|implies| C[Independence]
C -->|simplifies| A

E[Prior] -->|with likelihood| B
F[Likelihood] -->|updates| H[Posterior]
G[Evidence] -->|normalises| B
B -->|yields| H

I[Naïve<br/>Bayes] -->|uses| B
J[Naïve<br/>assumption] -->|assumes| C
K[Features] -->|given class| J
L[Class] -->|conditions| J
I -->|predicts| M[Classification]
M -->|selects| L

style A fill:#90CAF9,stroke:#1E88E5,color:#000
style B fill:#90CAF9,stroke:#1E88E5,color:#000
style C fill:#90CAF9,stroke:#1E88E5,color:#000

style D fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000
style E fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000
style F fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000
style G fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000
style J fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000
style K fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000
style L fill:#CE93D8,stroke:#8E24AA,color:#000

style H fill:#C8E6C9,stroke:#2E7D32,color:#000
style I fill:#C8E6C9,stroke:#2E7D32,color:#000
style M fill:#C8E6C9,stroke:#2E7D32,color:#000

Quick summary #

• Conditional probability: updates probability after an event is known.
• Multiplication rule: computes joint probability from conditional parts.
• Independence: tested using \( P(A\cap B)=P(A)P(B) \) .
• Total probability: breaks a probability into weighted cases.
• Bayes’ theorem: reverses conditioning to infer causes from evidence.

What’s next #

Probability Distributions
Move from events to random variables and distributions.

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