autocorrelation definition
Autocorrelation is a correlation coefficient. However, instead of correlation between two different variables, the correlation is between two values of the same variable at times Xi and Xi+k. When the autocorrelation is used to detect non-randomness, it is usually only the first (lag 1) autocorrelation that is of interest. When the autocorrelation is used to identify an appropriate time series model, the autocorrelations are usually plotted for many lags.