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Problems and Exercises III
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A. Correlational Analysis - Understanding Direction of Correlations

Decide whether you would expect the following relationships between two variables to be positive or negative.



1

Amount of snowfall and traffic speed.
2

Number of times a student is absent in a college class and grades in the class.
3

The number of times a student spins around and deviations (in inches) from a straight line is measured for 20 students who first spin and then attempt to walk in a line.
4

The relationship between the number of religious buildings in cities of the United States and number of robberies in those cities
5

The relationship between shoe size and years of education?

B. Interpreting Correlations

In problems 4 and 5 above, there is a likely “third variable” at work that is causally related to both of the variables in the relationship. In each of the problems in this exercise, a third variable might account for the relationship. In other words, “why” do you think that the variables are related?



6

Between number of religious buildings and number of robberies in U.S. cities?
7

Between shoe size and years of education?





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