Correlation between dichotomous and continuous variables

User: "filipedgb"
New Altair Community Member
Updated by Jocelyn

I'm using the operator "Correlation Matrix" on rapidminer, which I believe uses Pearson Correlation, and the operator is able to calculate correlations for every  variable type, including binominals (dichotomous) and polinominals. 

I would like to know: how exactly is the operator calculating the correlation for example between a binominal and a numerical attribute? Wouldn't a pearson correlation only allow numerical variables? Does it simply convert binominals to 0 and 1, or is it  doing something else?

Thanks in advance,
Filipe G.B.

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    User: "Telcontar120"
    New Altair Community Member
    Accepted Answer
    I believe it is doing sequential integer coding for any nominal attributes. This is of course highly questionable for polynominal data in terms of correlation interpretability, but for binominal data it does make sense.