Bouckaert, Remco R.Frank, EibeHolmes, GeoffreyFletcher, Dale2011-11-112011-11-112011Bouckaert, R.R., Frank, E., Holmes, G. & Fletcher, D. (2011). A comparison of methods for estimating prediction intervals in NIR spectroscopy: Size matters. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 109(2), 139-145.https://hdl.handle.net/10289/5877In this article we demonstrate that, when evaluating a method for determining prediction intervals, interval size matters more than coverage because the latter can be fixed at a chosen confidence level with good reliability. To achieve the desired coverage, we employ a simple non-parametric method to compute prediction intervals by calibrating estimated prediction errors, and we extend the basic method with a continuum correction to deal with small data sets. In our experiments on a collection of several NIR data sets, we evaluate several existing methods of computing prediction intervals for partial least-squares (PLS) regression. Our results show that, when coverage is fixed at a chosen confidence level, and the number of PLS components is selected to minimize squared error of point estimates, interval estimation based on the classic ordinary least-squares method produces the narrowest intervals, outperforming the U-deviation method and linearization, regardless of the confidence level that is chosen.enNIRprediction intervalPLS regressionexperimental designMachine learningJournal Article10.1016/j.chemolab.2011.08.008