The document defines and describes the coefficient of correlation, which is a statistic that measures the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables on a scale of -1 to +1. It explains that a correlation of -1 is a perfect negative correlation, 0 is no correlation, and +1 is a perfect positive correlation. The document also differentiates between types of correlation coefficients and methods for computing correlation coefficients, including Karl Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients.