Pearson’s r isn’t the only game in town…

Name	Symbol	Characteristic of Variables
Pearson’s Product Moment	r	Both are continuous (interval or ratio)
Rank Order	r	Both are rank (ordinal)
Point-Biserial	rpbis	One is continuous (interval or ratio) and one is nominal with two values
Biserial	rbis	Both are continuous, but one has been artificially broken down into nominal values.
Phi	f	Both are nominal and each has two values.
Contingency	C	Both are nominal and each has more than two values.
Tetrachoric	rt	Both are continuous, but each has been artificially broken down into two nominal values.
Eta	h	Both are continuous and are used to detect curvilinear relationships.

Del Siegle, Ph.D.
Neag School of Education – University of Connecticut
del.siegle@uconn.edu
www.delsiegle.info

updated 2/24/2015