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CORRELATION AND REGRESSION

Correlation is one statistical method used to determine whether a relationship

exists between two or more variables. If a relationship exists between the
variables, regression is used to describe the nature of relationship.

A positive relationship exists when both variables increase or decrease at

the same time. A negative relationship exists when one variable increases while
the other decreases, or vice versa.

Statisticians used a measure called correlation coefficient. This measures how

closely the points in a scatter diagram are spread out a line.

Correlation Coefficient:

=

Where
( )2
2
=

( )2
2
=


=

and n is the number of data pairs, SS stands for sum of squares.

Range of r : [-1,1]

Value of r Relationship

Close to +1 Strong positive relationship

Close to 0 weak or no relationship

Close to -1 strong negative linear relationship

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Example: A statistics professor wants to see how strong the relationship is

between a students score on a test and his or her grade point average. The data
obtained from the sample follow.

Test
score, 98 105 100 100 106 95 116 112
x
WTA,y 2.1 2.4 3.2 2.7 2.2 2.3 3.8 3.4

ANS: r = 0.716

REGRESSION

The regression line is the line that corresponds to the given data. The higher the
value of r, the closer the points fit the regression line.

Regression Line: y = ax + b

Where

= and =

=mean of x; =mean of y;

Example : Find the regression line for the data in the first example.

ANS: y = -3.792 + 0.063x

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