Unit 4: Correlation - Practice Quiz

PSY115 — Statistical Methods For Psychological Research 60 Questions
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1 Which type of correlation occurs when both variables increase together?

types of correlation Easy
A. Positive correlation
B. Zero correlation
C. Partial correlation
D. Negative correlation

2 Which type of correlation occurs when one variable increases while the other decreases?

types of correlation Easy
A. Positive correlation
B. Zero correlation
C. Negative correlation
D. Multiple correlation

3 What does zero correlation indicate?

types of correlation Easy
A. A perfect negative relationship
B. No linear relationship
C. A perfect positive relationship
D. Equal variable means

4 A correlation coefficient of represents which relationship?

types of correlation Easy
A. Perfect negative relationship
B. Perfect positive relationship
C. No relationship
D. Weak positive relationship

5 A correlation coefficient of represents which relationship?

types of correlation Easy
A. Perfect positive relationship
B. Perfect negative relationship
C. No linear relationship
D. Weak negative relationship

6 What does Pearson's correlation coefficient measure?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A. Size of a sample
B. Frequency of a category
C. Difference between group means
D. Linear relationship strength

7 What symbol is commonly used for the sample Pearson correlation coefficient?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A.
B.
C.
D.

8 What is the possible range of Pearson's correlation coefficient?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A. to
B. to
C. to
D. to

9 Which value indicates a stronger correlation?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A.
B.
C.
D.

10 What does the sign of Pearson's show?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A. Direction of relationship
B. Statistical significance
C. Measurement scale
D. Number of participants

11 Which measurement level is generally appropriate for Pearson's correlation?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A. Categorical labels only
B. Ranks only
C. Nominal only
D. Interval or ratio

12 If , how would the relationship usually be described?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Easy
A. Perfect negative
B. Strong positive
C. Zero relationship
D. Strong negative

13 What does multiple correlation examine?

multiple correlation Easy
A. One variable and one score
B. One criterion and several predictors
C. Two group averages
D. One rank and one frequency

14 What symbol commonly represents the multiple correlation coefficient?

multiple correlation Easy
A.
B.
C.
D.

15 How many predictor variables are required for multiple correlation?

multiple correlation Easy
A. At least two
B. No variables
C. Exactly one
D. Exactly ten

16 What is the usual range of the multiple correlation coefficient ?

multiple correlation Easy
A. to
B. to
C. to
D. to

17 A multiple correlation of indicates what?

multiple correlation Easy
A. A negative prediction
B. No linear prediction
C. Perfect prediction
D. A rank difference

18 What type of data is especially suitable for Spearman's rank-order correlation?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Easy
A. Nominal labels
B. Raw text only
C. Ranked data
D. Unordered names

19 What symbol commonly represents Spearman's rank-order correlation?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Easy
A.
B.
C.
D.

20 Spearman's rank-order correlation is based mainly on what?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Easy
A. Sample frequencies
B. Population variances
C. Raw group means
D. Ranks of observations

21 A researcher finds that as daily stress increases, sleep quality tends to decrease in a fairly consistent pattern. What type of correlation is most appropriate?

types of correlation Medium
A. Zero correlation
B. Perfect curvilinear correlation
C. Positive correlation
D. Negative correlation

22 The relationship between arousal and performance is low at very low and very high arousal but highest at moderate arousal. Which type of relationship does this illustrate?

types of correlation Medium
A. Negative linear correlation
B. Curvilinear correlation
C. Positive linear correlation
D. Zero-order correlation

23 If two psychological variables have a correlation of , which conclusion is most justified?

types of correlation Medium
A. The variables have no linear relationship
B. The variables have an exact inverse relationship
C. The variables have no relationship of any kind
D. The variables are measured with perfect reliability

24 A scatterplot shows points closely following a downward-sloping straight line. Which description best fits the relationship?

types of correlation Medium
A. Strong positive linear correlation
B. Weak negative curvilinear correlation
C. Weak positive linear correlation
D. Strong negative linear correlation

25 A study reports a correlation between study time and examination scores. Which statement is the most appropriate interpretation?

types of correlation Medium
A. The variables must have identical measurement scales
B. Higher study time is associated with higher scores
C. Study time definitely causes higher scores
D. Higher scores necessarily cause more study time

26 What does Pearson's correlation coefficient primarily measure?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A. The difference between two sample means
B. The statistical significance of a single mean
C. The percentage of participants in each category
D. The strength and direction of a linear relationship

27 A sample produces between social anxiety and number of social interactions. Which interpretation is best?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A. Exactly of interactions are caused by anxiety
B. A strong positive linear relationship exists
C. There is no relationship because the value is negative
D. A moderate-to-strong negative linear relationship exists

28 If , what proportion of variance is explained by the linear relationship?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

29 Which value indicates the strongest linear relationship between two variables?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

30 Which situation is most likely to make Pearson's correlation misleading?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A. Both variables are quantitative
B. The scatterplot contains a major outlier
C. The relationship appears approximately linear
D. The sample includes independent observations

31 If every participant's score on one variable is converted from minutes to seconds, what happens to Pearson's ?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A. Its value remains unchanged
B. It becomes exactly twice as large
C. Its sign changes from positive to negative
D. It becomes half as large

32 A researcher obtains from a sample of 20 participants. Which statement is most accurate?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Medium
A. The relationship is necessarily statistically significant in every population
B. The relationship is positive and moderate in the sample
C. The relationship explains exactly of the outcome variance
D. The relationship proves that one variable causes the other

33 What does a multiple correlation coefficient, usually denoted by , describe?

multiple correlation Medium
A. The difference between several independent group means
B. The association between two ranks after removing ties
C. The reliability of one psychological test score
D. The association between one criterion and several predictors together

34 A regression model predicts academic performance from conscientiousness, prior achievement, and study hours. What does represent?

multiple correlation Medium
A. The mean prediction error in the model
B. The correlation between the two strongest predictors
C. The proportion of criterion variance explained jointly by the predictors
D. The number of predictors included in the model

35 A multiple correlation coefficient is reported as . What is the corresponding coefficient of determination?

multiple correlation Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

36 Which statement about the multiple correlation coefficient is correct?

multiple correlation Medium
A. must equal the largest predictor-criterion correlation
B. is unaffected by adding any new predictor
C. can range from to
D. can range from to

37 When a second predictor is added to a multiple regression model, the ordinary will generally:

multiple correlation Medium
A. Always decrease
B. Become equal to zero
C. Stay the same or increase
D. Change its sign

38 Spearman's rank-order correlation is most appropriate when the variables are:

Spearman's rank-order correlation Medium
A. Repeated measurements from one person only
B. Ordinal ranks or nonnormally distributed scores
C. Means from unrelated experimental groups
D. Nominal categories with no ordering

39 Six students receive the same ordering of ranks for motivation and attendance. What is Spearman's rank correlation likely to be?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

40 For six cases, the differences between paired ranks have squared values that sum to . Using , what is ?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

41 A researcher observes that stress rises with workload up to a moderate level, but among employees with extremely high workload, stress scores plateau because of emotional disengagement. Which type of association is most appropriate for describing the overall relationship?

types of correlation Hard
A. A positive linear correlation
B. A nonlinear correlation
C. A zero-order correlation
D. A negative linear correlation

42 Variable increases as variable increases, but the increases become progressively smaller. Which statement is most accurate?

types of correlation Hard
A. The variables have a positive nonlinear association
B. The variables have a perfect negative association
C. The variables have a positive partial association
D. The variables have no correlation

43 In a sample, anxiety and performance show a strong positive correlation within low-anxiety participants and a strong negative correlation within high-anxiety participants. The aggregate correlation is close to zero. What is the best interpretation?

types of correlation Hard
A. There is no relationship at any anxiety level
B. The sample correlation proves measurement unreliability
C. The aggregate coefficient masks subgroup-specific relationships
D. The variables must have a perfect curvilinear relationship

44 If every score on is transformed to while is unchanged, what happens to Pearson's correlation?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A. It becomes zero unless is standardized
B. Its magnitude triples
C. Its sign reverses but magnitude is unchanged
D. Its sign and magnitude both change

45 A dataset has Pearson correlation . One observation is deleted, and the new correlation is . Which conclusion is justified?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A. The variables changed from interval to nominal measurement
B. The new correlation must be statistically significant
C. The deleted observation was influential for the correlation
D. The original correlation was necessarily computed incorrectly

46 Suppose , , and . What is the least-squares regression slope for predicting from ?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

47 A study reports between therapy attendance and symptom improvement. Which statement is most defensible?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A. The linear association accounts for approximately of variance
B. Attendance causes of all symptom variation
C. The association is necessarily free from third-variable influence
D. Approximately of participants improved because of attendance

48 A scatterplot shows a strong U-shaped relationship between study time and exam performance. Pearson's is approximately zero. What does this result primarily indicate?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A. There is little or no linear association
B. The sample must contain identical scores
C. The variables are statistically independent
D. The variables have no systematic relationship

49 For a bivariate normal population, a researcher tests with and obtains . Using , which conclusion is closest?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A. , not significant at the .05 level
B. , significant at the .05 level
C. , significant at the .01 level
D. , significant at the .05 level

50 If the reliability of is .64 and the reliability of is .81, and the observed correlation is .36, what is the estimated disattenuated correlation?

Pearson's correlation coefficient correlation Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

51 A criterion correlates with predictors and at and , while . What is the squared multiple correlation?

multiple correlation Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

52 A predictor correlates with a criterion at . After adding a second predictor, the multiple correlation is . What does the second predictor contribute?

multiple correlation Hard
A. It contributes no incremental linear prediction
B. It proves the predictors are perfectly correlated
C. It reverses the first predictor's regression weight
D. It increases explained variance by

53 A model with three predictors has . The zero-order correlations between the criterion and the predictors are all positive. Which conclusion is still possible?

multiple correlation Hard
A. Every standardized regression coefficient must be positive
B. The predictors must be mutually uncorrelated
C. At least one standardized regression coefficient may be negative
D. The criterion must be measured on a nominal scale

54 Two predictors correlate at , and each correlates with at approximately . What is the primary statistical concern?

multiple correlation Hard
A. The criterion cannot be predicted linearly
B. The predictors are likely affected by multicollinearity
C. The regression model has no intercept
D. The multiple correlation must equal zero

55 A regression model's rises from .36 to .49 when two predictors are added. Which statement is correct?

multiple correlation Hard
A. The added predictors explain exactly independently
B. The correlation between added predictors is necessarily zero
C. The model's residual variance increases by
D. The added predictors provide a percentage-point increment in explained variance

56 For six participants with no tied ranks, the squared rank differences sum to . What is Spearman's rank-order correlation?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

57 A researcher ranks five observations on two variables. The rank pairs are . What is ?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Hard
A.
B.
C.
D.

58 When tied ranks occur, which procedure is generally most appropriate for computing Spearman's correlation?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Hard
A. Assign arbitrary distinct ranks to tied observations
B. Delete all observations involved in ties
C. Assign average ranks and correlate the rank variables
D. Use raw scores without any ranking

59 Which pattern can produce a high Spearman correlation but a much smaller Pearson correlation?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Hard
A. Two independent variables with equal variances
B. A perfectly linear relationship with no outliers
C. A random permutation of identical rank pairs
D. A monotonic but strongly curved relationship

60 If every rank on one variable is transformed from to , while the other variable remains unchanged, what happens to Spearman's correlation?

Spearman's rank-order correlation Hard
A. Its magnitude doubles
B. Its sign reverses but magnitude is unchanged
C. It becomes zero for every dataset
D. It changes only when ties are present