Final answer:
Negative correlation refers to circumstances where two variables change in opposite directions. An example is the weak negative correlation found between students' sleep duration and GPA, indicating students with less sleep tend to have lower GPAs.
Step-by-step explanation:
Negative correlation observations are instances where two variables change in opposite directions, which means as one variable increases, the other decreases. A classic example of a negative correlation is the relationship between the number of hours a student sleeps and their level of tiredness during the day; typically, as sleep decreases, tiredness increases. This type of correlation is distinct from a no correlation situation, where there is no predictable change observed between two variables, such as hours of sleep and shoe size.
Another real-world example of negative correlation concerns the findings of student researchers at the University of Minnesota, who discovered a weak negative correlation (r = -0.29) between the amount of sleep students get and their GPA. This implies that generally, students who get fewer than 5 hours of sleep tend to have lower GPAs, reinforcing the concept of negative correlation.