CHAPTER 3

Describing
Relationships
3.1
Scatterplots and
Correlation

The Practice of Statistics, 5th Edition

Starnes, Tabor, Yates, Moore

Bedford Freeman Worth Publishers

 Scatterplots and Correlation
Learning
Objectives
After this section, you should be able to:
✔ IDENTIFY explanatory and response variables in situations where
one variable helps to explain or influences the other.
✔ MAKE a scatterplot to display the relationship between two
quantitative variables.
✔ DESCRIBE the direction, form, and strength of a relationship
displayed in a scatterplot and identify outliers in a scatterplot.
✔ INTERPRET the correlation.
✔ UNDERSTAND the basic properties of correlation, including how
the correlation is influenced by outliers
✔ USE technology to calculate correlation.
✔ EXPLAIN why association does not imply causation.

The Practice of Statistics, 5th Edition 2

 Explanatory and Response Variables
Most statistical studies examine data on more than one variable. In
many of these settings, the two variables play different roles.

A response variable measures an outcome of a study.

An explanatory variable may help explain or influence changes

in a response variable.

Note: In many studies, the goal is to show that changes in one or

more explanatory variables actually cause changes in a
response variable. However, other explanatory-response
relationships don’t involve direct causation.

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 Displaying Relationships: Scatterplots
A scatterplot shows the relationship between two quantitative
variables measured on the same individuals. The values of one
variable appear on the horizontal axis, and the values of the
other variable appear on the vertical axis. Each individual in the
data appears as a point on the graph.

How to Make a Scatterplot

1. Decide which variable should go on each axis.
• Remember, the eXplanatory variable goes on the X-axis!
2. Label and scale your axes.
3. Plot individual data values.

• See the SEC Football example on p.145-146

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 Describing Scatterplots
To describe a scatterplot, follow the basic strategy of data analysis
from Chapters 1 and 2. Look for patterns and important departures
from those patterns.

How to Examine a Scatterplot

As in any graph of data, look for the overall pattern and for
striking departures from that pattern.
• You can describe the overall pattern of a scatterplot by the
direction, form, and strength of the relationship.
• An important kind of departure is an outlier, an individual
value that falls outside the overall pattern of the relationship.

The Practice of Statistics, 5th Edition 5

 Describing Scatterplots
Two variables have a positive association when above-average
values of one tend to accompany above-average values of the other
and when below-average values also tend to occur together.

Two variables have a negative association when above-average

values of one tend to accompany below-average values of the other.

Strength Describe the scatterplot.

Direction
There is a moderately strong,
Form negative, curved relationship between
the percent of students in a state who
take the SAT and the mean SAT math
score.
Further, there are two distinct clusters
of states and two possible outliers that
fall outside the overall pattern.

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 Example: Describing a scatterplot
Describe what the scatterplot reveals
about the relationship between points
per game and wins.

Direction: In general, it appears that

teams that score more points per
game have more wins and teams
that score fewer points per game
have fewer wins. We say that there
is a positive association between
points per game and wins.
Form: There seems to be a linear pattern in the graph (that is, the overall
pattern follows a straight line).

Strength: Because the points do not vary much from the linear pattern,
the relationship is fairly strong. There do not appear to be any values
that depart from the linear pattern, so there are no outliers.
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 Measuring Linear Association: Correlation
A scatterplot displays the strength, direction, and form of the
relationship between two quantitative variables.
Linear relationships are important because a straight line is a simple
pattern that is quite common. Unfortunately, our eyes are not good
judges of how strong a linear relationship is.

The correlation r measures the direction and strength of the linear

relationship between two quantitative variables.
•r is always a number between -1 and 1
•r > 0 indicates a positive association.
•r < 0 indicates a negative association.
•Values of r near 0 indicate a very weak linear relationship.
•The strength of the linear relationship increases as r moves away
from 0 towards -1 or 1.
•The extreme values r = -1 and r = 1 occur only in the case of a
perfect linear relationship.

The Practice of Statistics, 5th Edition 8

 Measuring Linear Association: Correlation

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 Check Your Understanding Correlation Practice
For each graph, estimate the correlation r and interpret it in context.

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 Calculating Correlation
The formula for r is a bit complex. It helps us to see what correlation is,
but in practice, you should use your calculator or software to find r.

How to Calculate the Correlation r

Suppose that we have data on variables x and y for n
individuals. The values for the first individual are x1 and y1, the
values for the second individual are x2 and y2, and so on. The
means and standard deviations of the two variables are x-bar
and sx for the x-values and y-bar and sy for the y-values.
The correlation r between x and y is:

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 Facts About Correlation
How correlation behaves is more important than the details of the
formula. Here are some important facts about r.
1. Correlation makes no distinction between explanatory and
response variables.
2. r does not change when we change the units of
measurement of x, y, or both.
3. The correlation r itself has no unit of measurement.
Cautions:
• Correlation does not imply causation
• Correlation requires that both variables be quantitative.
• Correlation does not describe curved relationships between variables, no matter
how strong the relationship is.
• A value of r close to 1 or -1 does not guarantee a linear relationship
• Correlation is not resistant. r is strongly affected by a few outlying observations.
• Correlation is not a complete summary of two-variable data.
The Practice of Statistics, 5th Edition 12
 Scatterplots and Correlation
Section
Summary
In this section, we learned how to…
✔ IDENTIFY explanatory and response variables in situations where
one variable helps to explain or influences the other.
✔ MAKE a scatterplot to display the relationship between two
quantitative variables.
✔ DESCRIBE the direction, form, and strength of a relationship
displayed in a scatterplot and identify outliers in a scatterplot.
✔ INTERPRET the correlation.
✔ UNDERSTAND the basic properties of correlation, including how
the correlation is influenced by outliers
✔ USE technology to calculate correlation.
✔ EXPLAIN why association does not imply causation.

The Practice of Statistics, 5th Edition 13

 (a) Positive. Students with higher IQs tend to
have higher GPAs and vice versa,
because both IQ and GPA are related to
mental ability.
(b) Roughly linear, because a line through the
scatterplot of points would provide a
good summary. Moderately strong,
because most of the points would be
close to the line.
(c) IQ is about 103 and GPA about 0.4

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 (b) The relationship is curved. Large
amounts of fuel were used for low and
high values of speed and smaller
amounts of fuel were used for moderate
speeds. This makes sense because the
best fuel efficiency is obtained by driving
at moderate speeds.
(c) Both directions are present in the
scatterplot. The association is negative
for lower speeds and positive higher
speeds.
(d) The relationship is very strong, with
little deviation from a curve that can be
drawn through the points.
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 (a) Most of the southern states fall
in the same pattern as the rest
of the states. However, southern
states typically have lower mean
SAT math scores than other
states with a similar percent of
students taking the SAT.
(b) West Virginia has a much lower
mean SAT Math score than the
other states that have a similar
percent of students taking the
exam.

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 r = 0.9 r=0

r = 0.7 r = -0.3

r = -0.9

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 (a) Gender is a categorical variable and correlation r is for two quantitative
variables.
(b) The largest possible value of the correlation is r = 1.
(c) The correlation r has no units.

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