Science. 1972 Mar 31;175(4029):1427-35. doi: 10.1126/science.175.4029.1427.
Empirical laws psychology may be based on physical measurements (for example, voltages, times), counting, ordering, or just classifying. It is a pointless, though widespread practice to use a physical measure or a count as a "definition" of a psychological variable; this practice obscures the fact that all one has done is measured a physical variable, or counted. What is important are the empirical laws that are established by use of such quantitative or qualitative observations. Some kinds of empirical relations and laws yield measurement structures, akin to the qualitative structures underlying fundamental measurement in physics. Measurement structures are empirical structures that can be described most simply by introduction of a new numerical function; such a function is a new measure, and is typically interpreted as measuring some particular psychological variable Measurement structures, formulated abstractly, sometimes provide valuable tools for formulating new empirical hypotheses to be tested; but in many instances, other kinds of theory may be more appropriate. The main focus of research ought always to be the discovery of simple laws; these may or may not lead to new measures.
经验定律心理学可能基于物理测量（例如电压、时间）、计数、排序，或者只是分类。将物理测量或计数用作心理变量的“定义”是毫无意义的，但这种做法掩盖了一个事实，即人们所做的只是测量了一个物理变量或进行了计数。重要的是通过使用这种定量或定性观察建立的经验定律。某些类型的经验关系和定律产生测量结构，类似于物理学中基本测量的定性结构。测量结构是经验结构，可以通过引入新的数值函数来最简洁地描述；这样的函数是一种新的度量，通常被解释为测量某个特定的心理变量。抽象地表述的测量结构有时为制定新的经验假设提供了有价值的工具，以供检验；但在许多情况下，其他类型的理论可能更合适。研究的主要重点应该始终是发现简单的定律；这些定律可能会也可能不会导致新的度量。
