When provided with a contingency table, what must be done?

When analyzing a contingency table, the primary step is to interpret the relationships between the categories. A contingency table is commonly used to display the frequency distribution of various variables, allowing us to observe how different categorical variables are associated with one another. By examining the frequencies in each cell of the table, one can determine patterns, trends, or potential independence or dependence between the variables involved.

Understanding these relationships can help in drawing conclusions about the data, such as whether there might be a significant association between the categories represented. This is particularly relevant in fields like psychology, where understanding the interaction between different demographic variables and behaviors is crucial. While other options might involve statistical approaches or calculations, they do not align with the primary objective of analyzing a contingency table, which is to interpret the data's categorical relationships effectively.