An Information-Processing Analysis of Perception and Action

Abstract

How much behavior can psychological theory be expected to predict or fully explain? A recent New Realist theory of philosophy of science allows for predictability in the laboratory, but not in the naturally varying environment (Manicas Secord, 1983). Complexity of the natural setting far exceeds what any scientific theory could hope to accommodate. Theories will have predictive power only in the laboratory in which the complexity of everyday life can be simplified, measured, and controlled. Our point of departure is even more pessimistic in that the complexity of the prototypical psychology experiment might exceed any theory’s predictive power. Revising the dictum that “data without theory are meaningless” (Coombs, unpublished), laboratory data might exceed the constraints demanded by theory (even reasonably correct theory).