In calculations of the degrees of freedom for a correlation coefficient, what value does the degrees of freedom take?
A) (n - 1)
B) (n - 2)
C) (n - 1)/2
D) 2(n - 1)

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The degrees of freedom for a correlation coefficient is (n - 2), where n is the sample size. This is because in order to calculate the correlation coefficient, we need two sets of data (X and Y), and each set of data uses one degree of freedom. Therefore, the total degrees of freedom is (n - 1) for both X and Y, and since we are calculating the correlation coefficient between X and Y, we need to subtract 2 to get (n - 2) as the degrees of freedom.

In Calculations of the Degrees of Freedom for a Correlation