The question in the Hawthorne studies asks,Why does decreased illumination lead to increased productivity? The conjecture, "Perhaps the people producing the output are receiving more attention than they are used to," may be tested against the criterion, "Is that conjecture interesting?" When the theorist asks if the "attention" conjecture is interesting, he or she actually tests the conjecture of increased attention against many more observations than those observed at Hawthorne. The conjecture is being tested against the theorist's prior experience that has been edited down into assumptions that are activated when the theorist asks, Is this conjecture interesting?