I'm helping out someone taking a Statistics class and her instructor is
drawing a distinction between "part correlation" and "partial correlation".
I had never heard of the term "part correlation" before.
As best I understand it, If you have three variables, A, B, C, then you can
compute residuals for A (call it A-A') for a regression model using A as the
dependent variable and C as the independent variable. You can also compute
the residuals for B (call it B-B') using B as the dependent variable and C
as the independent variable.
The definition of partial correlation between A and B adjusting for C is the
correlations between (A-A') and (B-B'). The definition of part correlation
between A and B adjusting for C is the correlation between (A-A') and B.
The instructor claims that the part correlation is usually better (more
interpretable?) but that SPSS and other software will not compute such a
correlation.
Does any of this make sense? Why would you ever want to use a part
correlation?
Steve Simon, [EMAIL PROTECTED], Standard Disclaimer.
STATS - Steve's Attempt to Teach Statistics: http://www.cmh.edu/stats
===========================================================================
This list is open to everyone. Occasionally, less thoughtful
people send inappropriate messages. Please DO NOT COMPLAIN TO
THE POSTMASTER about these messages because the postmaster has no
way of controlling them, and excessive complaints will result in
termination of the list.
For information about this list, including information about the
problem of inappropriate messages and information about how to
unsubscribe, please see the web page at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
===========================================================================
