Correlation

A mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.

Introduction
Correlation quantifies the extent to which two quantitative
variables, X and Y, go together. When high values of X are
associated with high values of Y, a positive correlation exists.
When high values of X are associated with low values of Y, a
negative correlation exists.

Introduction

The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
measures the degree of association between two interval (or
better)-level variables, for example, the relationship between
daily consumption of fat calories and body weight, or
attitudes towards smoking and attitudes towards
consumption of alcohol; what is the relationship between
student achievement and dollars per student spent by the
school district?
Sometimes both of the variables are treated as dependent,
meaning that we havent ordered them causally.
Sometimes one of the variables, X, is treated as
independent and the other, Y, as dependent. Which of
these is dependent and which is independent depends on
your theory of the relationship
The correlation coefficient, Pearsons r, ranges between +1
and -1 where +1 is a perfect positive association (people
who get high scores on X also get high scores on Y) and -1
is a perfect negative association (people who get high
scores on X get low scores on Y). A correlation near zero
indicates that there is no relationship between scores on the
two variables

The correlation coefficient is related to other types of
measures of association:
The partial correlation, which measures the degree of
association between two variables when the effects on
them of a third variable is removed: what is the
relationship between student achievement and dollars
per student spent by the school district when the effect
of parents SES is removed
The multiple correlation, which measures the degree to
which one variable is correlated with two or more other
variables: how well can I predict student achievement
knowing mean school district expenditure per pupil and
parent SE
Picture of two different cars


Picture of two different short & tall