Scatter Plot Correlations

Correlation

With scatter plots we often talk about how the variables relate to each other. This is called correlation. There are three types of correlation: positive, negative, and none (no correlation).

• Positive Correlation: as one variable increases so does the other. Height and shoe size are an example; as one's height increases so does the shoe size.
• Negative Correlation: as one variable increases, the other decreases. Time spent studying and time spent on video games are negatively correlated; as your time studying increases, time spent on video games decreases.
• No Correlation: there is no apparent relationship between the variables. Video game scores and shoe size appear to have no correlation; as one increases, the other one is not affected.