Derived Stimulus Relations and Their Role in a Behavior-Analytic Account of Human Language and Cognition

Abstract

The article describes how the study of derived stimulus relations has provided the basis for a behavior-analytic approach to the study of human language and cognition in purely functional-analytic terms. The article begins with a brief history of the early behavior-analytic approach to human language and cognition, focusing on Skinner's (1957) text Verbal Behavior, his subsequent introduction of the concept of instructional control (Skinner, 1966), and then Sidman's (1994) seminal research on stimulus equivalence relations. The article then considers how the concept of derived stimulus relations, as conceptualized within relational frame theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001), allowed researchers to refine and extend the functional approach to language and cognition in multiple ways. Finally, the article considers some recent conceptual and empirical developments that highlight how the concept of derived stimulus relations continues to play a key role in the behavior-analytic study of human language and cognition, and in particular implicit cognition. In general, the article aims to provide a particular perspective on how the study of derived stimulus relations has facilitated and enhanced the behavior analysis of human language and cognition, particularly over the past 25-30 years.

Matrix Training for Expanding the Communication of Toddlers and Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The acquisition of untaught targets, or recombinative generalization, observed in the present study may be conceptualized through the perspective of derived stimulus relations and relational frame theory. The derived stimulus relation of equivalence refers to the emergence of unreinforced or untrained responses based on a small set of trained responses (Barnes-Holmes, Barnes-Holmes, & Cullinan, 2000;Barnes-Holmes, Finn, McEnteggart, & Barnes-Holmes, 2018). The extensive work on stimulus equivalence led to the conceptualization of relational frame theory (RFT; Hayes, 1991;Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001), according to which stimulus equivalence is one of many possible generalized relational operants common in human language.…”

Adolescent and Parent Experiences of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Pediatric Chronic Pain: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

“…Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has shown promising results in the treatment of pediatric chronic pain, both when delivered as a weekly outpatient treatment and as an intensive interdisciplinary treatment program (see e.g., [24,25,26,27]). ACT is explicitly linked to Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS) and Relational Frame Theory (RFT), which operationalizes cognition and language primarily as verbal behavior, i.e., derived conditioning [28,29]. In derived conditioning, in contrast to respondent and operant conditioning, stimuli (objects, words, thoughts, etc.)…”

“…In derived conditioning, in contrast to respondent and operant conditioning, stimuli (objects, words, thoughts, etc.) receive their functions (e.g., fear) indirectly via and according to their specific relations to other stimuli [29]. Based on this approach, specific interventions in ACT aim to undermine problematic functions of cognitions and language, for example, by means of acceptance (i.e., noting experiences of, e.g., pain/distress, without attempting to change them) and perspective-taking exercises (i.e., placing yourself as an active observer of such thoughts/experiences), and to facilitate adaptive and flexible behavioral repertoires in line with motivating verbal antecedents (i.e., personal values) [30,31].…”

Effects of differential training in rule-governed behavior on compliance with traffic rules by pedestrians

“…Likewise, rules are formed predominantly from environmental influencers, such as family, educational background, schooling, and communication media, including language, amongst others. This is in such a way that those rules constitute the verbal context that gives consequences about behaviors, allowing subjects themselves assess and judge their own behaviors from the inclusion of this verbal context (Barnes-Holmes et al, 2017;Kissi et al, 2017).…”