The simple correlation and regression analysis discussed earlier measure the degree

and nature of the effect of one variable on another. While it is useful to know how
one phenomenon is influenced by another, it is also important to know how one
phenomenon is affected by several other variables. One variable is it is also
important to know how one phenomenon is affected by several other variables. One
variable is related to a number of other variables, many of which may be interrelated
among themselves. For example, yield of rice is affected by the type of soil,
temperature, amount of rainfall, etc. It is part of the statistician’s task to determine
the effect of one case when the effect of others is estimated. This is done with the
help of multiple and partial correlation analysis. Thus, it shall be possible for us to
compare the relative importance of television advertisement and newspaper
advertisement on increasing sales.
The basic distinction between multiple and partial correlation analysis is that
whereas in the former, we measure the degree of association between the variable Y
and all the variables, X1,X2, X 3,... X, 1, taken together. in the latter we measure the
degree of association between Y and one of the variables X1, X2, X3’“ X”, with the
effect of all the other variables removed. It should be noted that when only two
variables are included in a study, the dependent variable is usually designated by Y,
and the independent variable by X. However, when more than one independent
variable is used it becomes advantageous to distinguish between the variables by
means of subscripts and use only the letter X. The dependent
variable is generally denoted by X1 and the independent variables by X2, X 3, etc.
This scheme ofnotation can be expanded to take care of any number of independent
variables.