ABSTRACT
In sensory testing, one may be interested in whether scores change under different experimental conditions, whether groups of human subjects vary, or whether different sets of food samples give different flavor scores. This chapter considers a different approach. It considers a test that looks for similarities between two sets of data. The chapter examines how well they relate to each other, or in other words, how they co-relate or correlate. As far as food research is concerned, there are many uses for correlation, especially correlation between processing and sensory variables. The chapter also considers correlation and linear regression. Correlation can be a clue to causality. The science of epidemiology looks for correlations between diseases and possible causes. A high correlation indicates that there may be a causal relationship. Correlation is used as a screening device to eliminate possible causes of a disease that are unlikely.
