Experiment 1 aimed to establish "fearful" and "pleasant" functions for arbitrary stimuli (geometric shapes) by relating those stimuli to pictures of spiders and pets using a training version of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The transformation of these functions for the arbitrary stimuli was assessed by exposing participants to a 'traditional' version of the IRAP, the Fear-IRAP employed by Leech et al. (2016, 2017). A broadly similar pattern of response biases was recorded for the Fear-IRAP as had been observed in the previously published studies. Experiment 1 thus supported the assumed but untested assumption that the relational context provided by the IRAP may both serve to establish and reveal fear-related response biases in arbitrary stimuli. A second experiment attempted to replicate the effects observed in Experiment 1 but using pictures of 'unfamiliar' Australian marsupials as arbitrary stimuli. The pattern of results obtained in Experiment 2 failed to replicate the pattern observed in Experiment 1, or that reported in the previously published studies by Leech et al. Overall, the findings suggest a possibly important boundary condition for the IRAP as a training and/or testing context for establishing fear-related response biases for arbitrary stimuli.
Recent research suggests that fear and avoidance responding based on derived transformation of functions may be considered functionally independent. The current study examined the impact of a Fear-Related Verbal-Rehearsal task on performance on two Implicit Relational Assessment Procedures (IRAPs), actual approach behavior towards a live spider (a BAT), and the relationship between the IRAPs and the BAT. The study was conducted over 3 separate days. Day 1 involved exposure to a series of questionnaires, the Fear-Related Verbal-Rehearsal task and homework. Day 2 involved a second exposure to the Fear-Related Verbal-Rehearsal task and exposure to the IRAPs and BAT. The final day involved a second exposure to the IRAPs and BAT. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (i.e., control, accept-or reduce-fear). Broadly similar findings were obtained for performance on the IRAPs as were reported by Leech, Barnes-Holmes and McEnteggart, 2017. No significant differences between the conditions emerged on the self-report measures, the IRAPs, or the BAT. However, correlations between performances on the IRAPs and the BAT were concentrated almost exclusively in the control and reduce-fear conditions rather than the accept-fear condition. The replication of results reported here, provide further evidence of the functional independence of approach and avoidance responding. Furthermore, the differential pattern of correlations observed provide further evidence that the Fear-Related Verbal-Rehearsal task impacted upon a behavior-behavior relation that may be directly relevant to the concept of defusion in the ACT literature. In addition, the differential arbitrarily applicable relational responding effects (DAARRE) model offers an alternative explanation for the results reported.
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