ABSTRACT
In describing the experimental analysis of behavior, Skinner has said:
The experimental analysis of behavior is also generally characterized by an unhurried attitude toward the as-yet-unexplained. Criticism often takes the line that the analysis is oversimplified, that it ignores important facts, that a few obvious exceptions demonstrate that its formulation cannot possibly be adequate, and so on. An understandable reaction might be to stretch the available facts and principles in order to cover more ground, but the general plan of the research suggests another strategy. Unlike hypotheses, theories, and models, together with the statistical manipulations of data which support them, a smooth curve showing a change in probability of a response as a function of a controlled variable is a fact in the bag, and there is no need to worry about it as one goes in search of others. The shortcomings and exceptions will be accounted for in time.
(Skinner, 1969, p. 84)