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Optimality is both elusive and necessary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Joachim Meyer*
Affiliation:
Department of Industrial Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel. jmeyer@tau.ac.iljmeyer.tau.ac.il

Abstract

Optimality of any decision, including perceptual decisions, depends on the criteria used to evaluate outcomes and on the assumptions about available alternatives and information. In research settings, these are often difficult to define, and therefore, claims about optimality are equivocal. However, optimality is important in applied settings when evaluating, for example, the detection of abnormalities in medical images.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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