R How to Read Pair plot

rscatter-plottime-series

library(astsa)
data(cmort)
data(tempr)
data(part)
pairs(cbind(Mortality=cmort, Temperature=tempr, Particulates=part))

enter image description here

The author mentioned in his book – Page 46 that "Note the curvilinear shape of the temperature mortality curve, indicating that higher temperatures as well as lower temperatures
are associated with increases in cardiovascular mortality."

Am I reading the scatterplot incorrectly or what.. I just cannot make sense of what the author said…

Best Solution

Mortality is represented by the y-axis on the top row and the x-axis on the first column. You can look across from the word "Mortality" to each axis as a reminder. Likewise, temperature is represented by the y-axis on the second row and the x-axis on the second column.

(You'll see there's no data in the top left corner, because it would just be a straight diagonal line plotting mortality against mortality.)

The temperature mortality curve is in the top middle plot and the left middle plot (one is the inverse of the other). If you look at the top middle plot--with temperature on the x-axis and mortality on the y-axis--you can see it's curved (curvilinear), and somewhat U-shaped, showing that "higher temperatures as well as lower temperatures are associated with increases in cardiovascular mortality."