Suppose researchers find a negative relationship between alcohol consumption and the number of correct responses on a skills test: the more alcohol consumed the lower the score. Which of the following fictitious statistics could possibly represent that correlation?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A negative relationship means that as one variable increases, the other decreases. Therefore, the correlation coefficient must be negative. Choices C and D have positive correlation coefficients and choice A is too extreme of a value to be plausible. The correlation coefficient in choice B (-0.87) indicates a strong negative relationship between alcohol consumption and test scores.

Suppose Researchers Find a Negative Relationship Between Alcohol Consumption and the Number