I'm sure someone else will provide a better explanation, but my
understanding was that when Galton was working out his ideas, he was
interested in the tendency of offspring to regress toward the mean of the
distribution compared to parents. Therefore, his more general work about
correlation was called regression (or was it originally termed reversion?),
and his student Karl Pearson used the symbol r for the correlation
coefficient he developed (for regression).
Marty Bourgeois
University of Wyoming
-----Original Message-----
From: DAVID KREINER [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 10:38 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: regression question
One of my students asked why the statistical process of regression is called
regression. I could not come up with a plausible answer, so I'm asking my
wise Tipster colleagues to help. Does anyone have a good answer?
David Kreiner
Professor of Psychology
Central Missouri State University
Warrensburg MO 64093
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: 660 543-8076
Fax: 660 543-8505
