Denis O'Hora

Derived relational networks and control by novel instructions: A possible model of generative verbal responding

Relational Frame Theory proposes that control by novel instructions may be understood as control by networks of Same and Before or After relations. The current paper reports two experiments in which such control was demonstrated. In Experiment 1, undergraduate students were first trained to respond in accordance with Before and After relations and then trained to respond in accordance with Same and Different relations. Subjects were then presented with a number of ‘instructions’ in the form of networks of Same, Different, Before, and After relations in the absence of reinforcement. Of the 3 students, 2 demonstrated the required performance within two exposures to the final phase of the experiment. In Experiment 2, 5 of 8 additional subjects who demonstrated instructional control also did so in the presence of 24 novel stimulus sets without further training. The implications of these novel and generative performances for the analysis of instructional control and human language more generally are considered.

Response latencies to multiple derived stimulus relations: Testing two predictions of relational frame theory

In Experiment 1, 3 college students were exposed to relational pretraining to establish the contextual functions of Same, Opposite, More Than, and Less Than in four arbitrary stimuli. Subjects were then trained on the matching-to-sample tasks A 1-81 and Y1-N1, in the presence of the More-Than contextual cue, A 1-82 and Y1-N2 in the presence of the Less-Than contextual cue, C1-D1 and E1 -D2 in the presence of the Same cue, and C1-D2 and E1-D1 in the presence of the Opposite cue. Test trials were subsequently administered to probe for the mutually entailed relations; Less-Than/81-A 1, Less-ThanlN1-Y1, More-Than/82-A1, More-Than/N2-Y1, Same/D1-C1, Same/D2-E1, Opposite/D2-C1, and Opposite/D1-E1. Response latencies to probes for derived Same/Opposite relations were significantly lower than those for derived More ThaniLess Than relations. Experiment 2 exposed 4 subjects to training across each of the four relations and used a novel stimulus set to test for reduced response latencies to the derived relations. Response latencies to More-ThaniLess-Than probes reduced significantly across the original to the novel stimulus set, whereas latencies to Same/Opposite probes were low across both stimulus sets.

TEMPORAL RELATIONS AND INTELLIGENCE : CORRELATING RELATIONAL PERFORMANCE WITH PERFORMANCE ON THE WAIS-III

Relational frame theory (RFT) explicitly suggests that derived relational responding underlies complex verbally-based cognitive performances. The current study investigated whether the ability to respond in accordance with temporal relations between stimuli was predictive of performance on the four indices of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, third edition (WAIS-III). In line with RFT predictions, for 81 undergraduate students between 18 and 48 years old, successfully completing a temporal relational task predicted better performance on the Verbal Comprehension and Perceptual Organization indices but not on the Working Memory or Processing Speed indices. In addition, correlations observed between the percentage of correct temporal relational responses and individual subscales demonstrated strong within-index homogeneity, which highlights the utility of the index factor structure in WAIS-III.

Relational frame theory: A new paradigm for the analysis of social behavior

Recent developments in the analysis of derived relational responding, under the rubric of relational frame theory, have brought several complex language and cognitive phenomena within the empirical reach of the experimental analysis of behavior. The current paper provides an outline of relational frame theory as a new approach to the analysis of language, cognition, and complex behavior more generally. Relational frame theory, it is argued, also provides a suitable paradigm for the analysis of a wide variety of social behavior that is mediated by language. Recent empirical evidence and theoretical interpretations are provided in support of the relational frame approach to social behavior.

Rule-Governed Behavior: Teaching a Preliminary Repertoire of Rule-Following to Children with Autism.

Rule-governed behavior is generally considered an integral component of complex verbal repertoires but has rarely been the subject of empirical research. In particular, little or no previous research has attempted to establish rule-governed behavior in individuals who do not already display the repertoire. This study consists of two experiments that evaluated multiple exemplar training procedures for teaching a simple component skill, which may be necessary for developing a repertoire of rule-governed behavior. In both experiments, children with autism were taught to respond to simple rules that specified antecedents and the behaviors that should occur in their presence. In the first study, participants were taught to respond to rules containing “if/then” statements, where the antecedent was specified before the behavior. The second experiment was a replication and extension of the first. It involved a variation on the manner in which rules were presented. Both experiments eventually demonstrated generalization to novel rules for all participants; however variations to the standard procedure were required for several participants. Results suggest that rule-following can be analyzed and taught as generalized operant behavior and implications for future research are discussed.

Local dynamics in decision making: The evolution of preference within and across decisions

Within decisions, perceived alternatives compete until one is preferred. Across decisions, the playing field on which these alternatives compete evolves to favor certain alternatives. Mouse cursor trajectories provide rich continuous information related to such cognitive processes during decision making. In three experiments, participants learned to choose symbols to earn points in a discrimination learning paradigm and the cursor trajectories of their responses were recorded. Decisions between two choices that earned equally high-point rewards exhibited far less competition than decisions between choices that earned equally low-point rewards. Using positional coordinates in the trajectories, it was possible to infer a potential field in which the choice locations occupied areas of minimal potential. These decision spaces evolved through the experiments, as participants learned which options to choose. This visualisation approach provides a potential framework for the analysis of local dynamics in decision-making that could help mitigate both theoretical disputes and disparate empirical results.

TESTING FOR TRANSITIVE CLASS CONTAINMENT AS A FEATURE OF HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION

Three experiments investigated responding consistent with transitive class containment, a feature of hierarchical classification. Experiment 1 replicated key components of a preliminary attempt to model hierarchical classification (Griffee & Dougher, 2002) and tested for responding consistent with transitive class containment. Only 2 out of 5 participants showed the expected pattern. Experiment 2 tested whether repeated exposures to the Experiment 1 protocol would give rise to the expected pattern more reliably. None of 3 novel participants demonstrated the pattern. In Experiment 3, physically similar stimuli used in Experiments 1 and 2 were replaced across testing cycles by arbitrary stimuli. Transitive-class-containment-consistent responding was observed in all 3 novel participants. Implications, limitations and future research are discussed.

The Effects of a Goal Setting Intervention on Productivity and Persistence in an Analogue Work Task

The authors of this study sought to quantify the beneficial effect of goal setting on work performance, and to characterize the persistence or deterioration of goal-directed behavior over time. Twenty-six participants completed a computer-based data entry task. Performance was measured during an initial baseline, a goal setting intervention that consisted of either a high, unattainable goal (high goal condition) or a low, attainable goal (low goal condition), followed by a return to baseline, and a second goal setting intervention (the alternate goal to the first goal). In the fifth condition, each participant was given the choice to work in either the high or low goal condition. Greater performance increases were reliably observed during the high goal condition than during the low goal condition, but patterns of persistence or deterioration varied across participants. The implications of the findings for the development and understanding of goal setting interventions in the workplace are explored.

Multiple contextual control over non-arbitrary relational responding and a preliminary model of pragmatic verbal analysis.

The aims of the current study were (i) to explore the flexibility and generalizability of non-arbitrary relational contextual control in human participants and (ii) to provide a simple empirical model of pragmatic verbal analysis, a key element in the relational frame theory approach to problem solving. Participants were trained to respond to abstract shapes as cues for responding in accordance with non-arbitrary relations of sameness, difference and opposition. Next, sameness, difference and opposition relational responding was brought under additional contextual control by arbitrary B1-B3 stimuli, such that, depending on the B stimulus presented, relational responding was applied to one of three distinct physical dimensions of multidimensional shapes. Equivalence training and testing was then provided such that participants showed derived relations between the B stimuli and three novel arbitrary C stimuli. Two additional cues were then trained such that they occasioned comparative (more/less) relations. A final test showed that the C stimuli exerted contextual control over physical dimensions in the novel context of more/less/same non-arbitrary relational responding. These findings provide a simple, preliminary model of pragmatic verbal analysis.

Sequential responding in accordance with temporal relational cues: A comparison of 'before' and 'after'.

The current study investigated the relative effects of Before and After relational cues on temporal order judgments. In Experiment 1, participants (n= 20) were exposed to a 5-phase temporal relational responding task. Participants observed a sequence of 2 familiar shapes and then completed either a Before or an After statement to describe the sequence. Response speeds were significantly faster for Before statements than for After statements. Experiment 2 (N = 24) extended Experiment 1, using abstract rather than familiar stimuli, and replicated the findings. The current data extend previous research, which employed temporal relational responding tasks as a measure of cognitive abilities such as intelligence, by focusing on differences in speed between responding in the presence of relational cues used in such tasks. The differences in response speeds observed between Before and After cues suggest that more work is needed to understand the specific processes that underpin such responding.