Cumulative development of attentional theory.

The goal of every science is a cumulative development of its theoreticalstructure so that a larger part of its subject matter is explicable in termsof simpler principles. This traditional view of science has been challenged in psychology from many sources. One argument has been that it is better to view psychology in terms of shifting paradigms (Kuhn, 1962). It often seems to be accepted, almost as a matter of course, that in psychology no cumulative development will take place. A different challenge to the view of psychology as a cumulative science is the notion that nothing new is discovered while the views of Helmholtz, Wundt, or some other elder of the field are being reworked, with no apparent gain in either insight or scope. These two challenges to the cumulative nature of psychological theory are persuasive, but they are not con-sistent. If we shift from paradigm to paradigm, it seems puzzling that the cur-rent paradigm would so exactly mirror that of 100 years ago. On the other hand, if the solutions of 100 years ago remain, what has happened to paradigm shifts? Another criticism that has been applied to the study of attention is that psycho-logical theories are sterile, in that they do not illuminate important natural behavior or provide a perspective on the nature of mind (Neisser, 1976).