Correlation is a measure of the direction and strength of the linear (straight-line) association between two quantitative variables. The analysis of data from a study found that the scatter plot between two variables, x and y, appeared to show a straight-line relationship and the correlation (r) was calculated to be -0.84. This tells us that

a. there is little reason to believe that the two variables have a linear association relationship
b. all of the data values for the two variables lie on a straight line.
c. there is a strong linear relationship between the two variables with larger values of x tending to be associated with larger values of the y variable.
d. there is a strong linear relationship between x and y with smaller x values tending to be associated with larger values of the y variable.
e. there is a weak linear relationship between x and y with smaller x values tending to be associated with smaller values of the y variable

The correlation coefficient r=-0.84 denotes that there is inverse relationship between x and y. It means that as the x values increase the y values decrease whereas as the x values decreases the y-values increases. Also, r=-0.84 denotes the strong relationship between x and y because it is close to 1. So, r=-0.84 denotes that there is strong linear relationship between x and y with smaller x values tending to be associated with larger y values.