title: The problematic importance of hypotheses.
abstract: Contrary to what seems to have become established dogma in the behavioral sciences, the confirmational relevance of some data possibility D to a conjecture H should be indifferent to which of these two prospects we think of first. In particular, if ascertaining whether D is true would be a hypothetico-deductive test of hypothesis H were D's implication by H declared at outset, the confirmational relevance of D to H is not diminished by learning D before becoming aware that H implies it.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada. rozeboom@ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Wm W
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Rozeboom
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011582:Psychological Theory; D013850:Thinking