Discriminatory power ( = selective power or selectivity) is enhanced by using several different pieces of evidence to distinguish between similar objects or appearances, i.e, pattern recognition. This is equally true of histopathology, clinical medicine, biochemical analysis and daily life.

In any walk of life and in sciences also, the power to discriminate between things depends upon recognising many features of the object. In clinical or histological diagnosis we call this pattern recognition, in biochemistry we call it specific binding, and it is enhanced by mutual, matching heteropolyvalency in the target and ligand, a property that has not yet been fully acknowledged or exploited.