This particular point was discussed recently in an article by psychologists Harry Harlow, John Gluck, and Stephen Suomi, reproduced on the following pages. Someone's unsupported notion of how things should be done. A set of principles obtained in a highly artificial manner that often does not work well in practice. A set of general principles used to explain observed facts. No theory is completely true.
All theories fail to explain something.
Theories are seldom useful for making predictions. Match the function of theory with the following examples. Theory acts as a guide for collecting further observations. From their knowledge of reinforcement schedules, a group of military researchers increased a radar operator's attention by having a computer deliberately introduce false blips on the screen at varying intervals of time. The formulation of the theory for the teaching machine, by B. F. Skinner, incited investigations of issues such as how active responding affects learning, the effects of immediate knowledge of results, and so on.