In 1982 John Hinckley was on trial, accused of having attempted to kill President Reagan. During Hinckley’s trial, Dr. Daniel R. Weinberger told the court that when individuals diagnosed as schizophrenics were given computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans, the scans showed brain atrophy in 30% of the cases compared with only 2% of the scans done on normal people. Hinckley’s defense attorney wanted to introduce as evidence Hinckley’s CAT scan, which showed brain atrophy. The defense argued that the presence of atrophy strengthened the case that Hinckley suffered from mental illness.

a Approximately 1.5 percent of the people in the United States suffer from schizophrenia. If we consider the prior probability of schizophrenia to be .015, use the information given to find the probability that a person has schizophrenia given that a person’s CAT scan shows brain atrophy.

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PSA 01859 Stepbystep explanation The probability PSA that Hinckley wa... View the full answer