Meaning | A statistical relation between two or more variables such that systematic changes in the value of one variable are accompanied by systematic changes in the other. |
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Synonym | correlation |
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Part of | correlational analysis | The use of statistical correlation to evaluate the strength of the relations between variables |
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Narrower | curvilinear correlation, nonlinear correlation, skew correlation | Any correlation in which the rates of change of the variables is not constant |
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negative correlation, indirect correlation | A correlation in which large values of one variable are associated with small values of the other |
partial correlation | A correlation between two variables when the effects of one or more related variables are removed |
positive correlation, direct correlation | A correlation in which large values of one variable are associated with large values of the other and small with small |
spurious correlation | A correlation between two variables (e.g., between the number of electric motors in the home and grades at school) that does not result from any direct relation between them (buying electric motors will not raise grades) but from their relation to other variables |
Broader | statistics | A branch of applied mathematics concerned with the collection and interpretation of quantitative data and the use of probability theory to estimate population parameters |
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