CORRELATION

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to:
- discuss correlation;
- discuss the relationship between two Parametric Data set using Correlation
coefficient;
- Test the significance of the relationship.

Lesson Proper

Test of correlation is one of the vital tools in Statistics that describes the relationship
between two data sets.

The most common tool for correlation is devised and named after Karl Pearson which known as
Pearson’s r.

nΣxy−ΣxΣy
r=
√¿¿¿

The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (or Pearson correlation coefficient, for
short) is a measure of the strength of a linear association between two variables and is denoted
by r. Basically, a Pearson product-moment correlation attempts to draw a line of best fit through
the data of two variables, and the Pearson correlation coefficient, r, indicates how far away all these
data points are to this line of best fit (how well the data points fit this new model/line of best fit)

Example:

Find the relationship exists between the scores of 10 students in English and in
Mathematics examination

Student English Mathematics

1 40 45
2 45 45
3 43 42
4 41 40
5 32 25
6 35 26
7 37 39
8 38 36
9 35 35
10 41 34
Solution:

The table below helps to solve the Pearson’s r.

Studen
t English (X) Math (Y) X2 Y2 XY
1 40 45 1600 2025 1800
2 45 45 2025 2025 2025
3 43 42 1849 1764 1806
4 41 40 1681 1600 1640
5 32 25 1024 625 800
6 35 26 1225 676 910
7 37 39 1369 1521 1443
8 38 36 1444 1296 1368
9 35 35 1225 1225 1225
10 41 34 1681 1156 1394
Total 387 367 15123 13913 14411

nΣxy−ΣxΣy
r=
√¿¿¿

10 ( 14411 )−( 387 ) (367)

r=
√ ¿ ¿¿

2081
r=
√ [1461][4441]

2081
r=
2547.214

r =0.817

Now use the line below to determine how strong is the relationship between x and y.

-1.0 0 +1.0
Strong Negative No Relationship Strong Negative
Relationship Relationship

Thus, there is a strong positive relationship between the scores of students in

English and in Mathematics.
 Note:

“If the r-value is positive, it implies that as x increases, y also increases. Conversely, as x decreases, y also
decreases.”

“If the r-value is negative, it implies that as x variable increases, y decreases. Conversely, as x decreases, y
increases.”

In the above example, the r-value of 0.817 tells that those students who got high
scores in English exam also got high scores in Mathematics.

The Coefficient of Determination

The ratio of the explained variation to the total variation is called the coefficient of
determination. If there is zero explained variation (i.e., the total variation is all
unexplained), this ratio is 0. If there is zero unexplained variation (i.e., the total variation is
all explained), the ratio is 1. In other cases the ratio lies between 0 and 1.
The coefficient of determination (COD) in the given example is

COD = r2×100
COD = (0.817)2×100
COD = .6675 ×100
COD = 66.75%

Test of Significance for r

Two variables may be correlated but not in all cases, the relationship existed is
significant. To test the significance for r, t-test for correlation should be used.
t= √ 2
r n−2
√(1−r )
where r = Pearson’s correlation
n – 2 = Degrees of freedom

0.817 √ 10−2
t=
√(1−0.6675)

t=4.007

To test the significance of relationship, one may follow the hypothesis testing procedure.

1. State the null and alternative hypothesis

2. Set the appropriate alpha level of significance and find the critical/tabular value
3. Compute the test statistic
 4. Decide whether to reject or not to reject the null hypothesis.
5. Interpret the result.

Using the hypothesis testing procedure,

1. State the null and alternative hypothesis

a. Null hypothesis: There is no significant relationship between the scores of

students in English and in Mathematics.
b. Alternative hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between the scores of
students in English and in Mathematics

2. Set the appropriate alpha level of significance and find the critical/tabular value

a. At 5% alpha level of significance with 8 df, the tabular value of t is 2.306. (Take
note that if the computed value is greater than the tabular value, then the researcher has to reject
the null hypothesis.)

3. Compute the test statistic

As computed previously, t-value is 4.007 which is greater than the critical value of 2.306.

4. Decide whether to reject or not to reject.

a. Since the t-computed is greater than the critical value, the decision is to reject
the null hypothesis

5. Interpret the result.

a. The finding implies that English scores and Mathematics scores of students are
highly significantly correlated which means that those who are good in
comprehension, grammar and communication are also good in terms of
manipulative skills.
 Score:
Activity
CORRELATION
_________

Name: _____________________________________ Course: ___________

Instructor/Professor: _________________________ Date: _____________

A. Answer the following questions as accurate as you can.

1. What is Coefficient of Determination?

2. Why is Coefficient of Determination important in analyzing correlation
value?
3. When does a researcher reject the null hypothesis?
4. What is meant by significantly related? How does it differ from relationship
alone?
5. What is meant by positive correlation?

B. Problem solving

Given the data set below, determine if there is a significant relationship between
students’ age and their academic performance in Mathematics. (Please follow the
hypothesis testing procedure)

Student Age (x) Grade in Math (y)

1 14 88
2 15 89
3 16 87
4 16 78
5 17 73
6 17 80
7 17 84
8 18 80
9 17 81
10 17 83
 CRITICAL VALUES FOR T-DISTRIBUTION*
Alpha (1-tailed) 0.0500 0.0250 0.0100 0.0050 0.0025 0.0010 0.0005
Alpha (2-tailed) 0.1000 0.0500 0.0200 0.0100 0.0050 0.0020 0.0010
Df
1 6.3138 12.7065 31.8193 63.6551 127.3447 318.4930 636.0450
2 2.9200 4.3026 6.9646 9.9247 14.0887 22.3276 31.5989
3 2.3534 3.1824 4.5407 5.8408 7.4534 10.2145 12.9242
4 2.1319 2.7764 3.7470 4.6041 5.5976 7.1732 8.6103
5 2.0150 2.5706 3.3650 4.0322 4.7734 5.8934 6.8688
6 1.9432 2.4469 3.1426 3.7074 4.3168 5.2076 5.9589
7 1.8946 2.3646 2.9980 3.4995 4.0294 4.7852 5.4079
8 1.8595 2.3060 2.8965 3.3554 3.8325 4.5008 5.0414
9 1.8331 2.2621 2.8214 3.2498 3.6896 4.2969 4.7809
10 1.8124 2.2282 2.7638 3.1693 3.5814 4.1437 4.5869
11 1.7959 2.2010 2.7181 3.1058 3.4966 4.0247 4.4369
12 1.7823 2.1788 2.6810 3.0545 3.4284 3.9296 4.3178
13 1.7709 2.1604 2.6503 3.0123 3.3725 3.8520 4.2208
14 1.7613 2.1448 2.6245 2.9768 3.3257 3.7874 4.1404
15 1.7530 2.1314 2.6025 2.9467 3.2860 3.7328 4.0728
16 1.7459 2.1199 2.5835 2.9208 3.2520 3.6861 4.0150
17 1.7396 2.1098 2.5669 2.8983 3.2224 3.6458 3.9651
18 1.7341 2.1009 2.5524 2.8784 3.1966 3.6105 3.9216
19 1.7291 2.0930 2.5395 2.8609 3.1737 3.5794 3.8834
20 1.7247 2.0860 2.5280 2.8454 3.1534 3.5518 3.8495
21 1.7207 2.0796 2.5176 2.8314 3.1352 3.5272 3.8193
22 1.7172 2.0739 2.5083 2.8188 3.1188 3.5050 3.7921
23 1.7139 2.0686 2.4998 2.8073 3.1040 3.4850 3.7676
24 1.7109 2.0639 2.4922 2.7970 3.0905 3.4668 3.7454
25 1.7081 2.0596 2.4851 2.7874 3.0782 3.4502 3.7251
26 1.7056 2.0555 2.4786 2.7787 3.0669 3.4350 3.7067
27 1.7033 2.0518 2.4727 2.7707 3.0565 3.4211 3.6896
28 1.7011 2.0484 2.4671 2.7633 3.0469 3.4082 3.6739
29 1.6991 2.0452 2.4620 2.7564 3.0380 3.3962 3.6594
30 1.6973 2.0423 2.4572 2.7500 3.0298 3.3852 3.6459
*Excel Generated values