Question

The result for a Pearson’s r between students’ test scores and their motivation was, r(24) = .32, p = .07. What can the researcher conclude? Group of answer choices There is no statistical significant relationship between students’ motivation and their test scores. As students’ motivation increased, their test scores decreased. There is a negative relationship between the variables.

Answer 1

The researcher can conclude that there is a positive, yet statistically insignificant relationship between students' motivation and their test scores, with r(24) = .32 and a p-value of .07.

Step-by-step explanation:

The result for a Pearson’s r between students’ test scores and their motivation was, r(24) = .32, p = .07. Considering the information, the researcher can conclude that while there is a positive linear relationship between students’ motivation and their test scores, indicated by a positive r value, it is not statistically significant given that the p-value is higher than the conventional threshold of .05. This means that we would not reject the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant correlation between the two variables.

To determine the significance of a correlation, commonly, the p-value must be less than .05 to suggest strong evidence against the null hypothesis. In this case, a p-value of .07 suggests that the evidence is not strong enough to conclude a significant relationship exists.

Therefore, from these results, it is not advisable to use the regression line for prediction because the relationship is not statistically significant.