Underestimation of Pearson's product moment correlation statistic.

ABSTRACT: Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient (more commonly Pearson's r) tends to underestimate correlations that exist in the underlying population. This phenomenon is generally unappreciated in studies of ecology, although a range of corrections are suggested in the statistical literature. The use of Pearson's r as the classical measure for correlation is widespread in ecology, where manipulative experiments are impractical across the large spatial scales concerned; it is therefore vital that ecologists are able to use this correlation measure as effectively as possible. Here, our literature review suggests that corrections for the issue of underestimation in Pearson's r should not be adopted if either the data deviate from bivariate normality or sample size is greater than around 30

SUBMITTER: Humphreys RK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6323088 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature