THE TRANSITIVITY MISCONCEPTION OF PEARSON’S CORRELATION COEFFICIENT

Authors

  • ANA ELISA CASTRO SOTOS Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • STIJN VANHOOF Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • WIM VAN DEN NOORTGATE Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
  • PATRICK ONGHENA Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v8i2.394

Keywords:

Statistics education research, University students, Confidence

Abstract

Despite the relevance of correlational studies for most research domains, many students, teachers, and researchers alike hold misconceptions concerning the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. One of these, the transitivity misconception, has not yet been documented in a systematic way. This paper summarizes the first empirical study, using 279 university students, and examines the relationship between student-based and task-based factors and the appearance of this misconception. In particular, two task-based factors seemed to have a significant effect on its appearance. In addition, the respondents’ level of confidence in their answer to the transitivity item was significantly lower than for most other times.

First published November 2009 at Statistics Education Research Journal: Archives

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Published

2009-11-29

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 2 (2009)

Section

Regular Articles