If the correlation between variable A and variable B is .20, then variable A explains _____ of the variance in variable B.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to 1, representing the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. The squared value of the correlation coefficient (r^2) represents the proportion of shared variance between the two variables, i.e. the amount of variance in one variable that can be explained by the other variable. In this case, r^2 = 0.20^2 = 0.04, which means that variable A explains 4% of the variance in variable B. Therefore, the best choice is B.

If the Correlation Between Variable a and Variable B Is