STAT-2126EL Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Abscissa And Ordinate, Scatter Plot, Descriptive Statistics
Document Summary
A mathematical/statistical investigation into the relationship between 2 (or more) variables. Generally, the measurements of interest come from the same subject. If the result of the analysis is that a strong enough relationship exists, predictions about one variable can be made from the other variable. It is possible that two variables can be related without having a casual relationship. It is also possible that a mediating 3rd variable exists. It may be an uncontrolled factor that may underlie a correlation between 2 other factors. Both are dependent variables; in a correlational analysis, there is no manipulated independent variable. One variable can be used to predict the other. We make predictions about the criterion or dependent variable. In general, we make predictions from the predictor variable. As with descriptive statistics, it is sometimes helpful to chart the data to get an overall. For published data, it is customary to create a scatterplot that shows the relationship that you are describing.
