LESSON: Correlation

We know how to calculate the correlation coefficient now. Great! But how should I interpret it?

Remember, the correlation coefficient tells me how STRONG or WEAK the relationship is between two variables. In our class, we will use the following scale for interpreting the correlation coefficient and the strength or weakness of a relationship between two variables.

On the last lesson page we calculated the correlation coefficient for shoe size versus height and found it to be: r = 0.75. Using the scale above, we would say that there is a STRONG correlation between height and shoe size. This means that we can strongly expect that the taller a person is in our class, the larger their shoe size. 

Watch the video below to see a few more examples of interpreting the correlation coefficient using this scale: