Autocorrelation measures the correlation of a time series with its past and lagged values. It exists when observations in a time series are correlated with each other. The Durbin-Watson test can detect the presence of autocorrelation by examining the residuals of a regression model. If autocorrelation is present, it violates the assumption that errors are independent and leads to inaccurate test statistics and predictions. Common structures for autocorrelation include autoregressive (AR), moving average (MA), and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) processes.