Spider Fear and Avoidance: A Preliminary Study of the Impact of Two Verbal Rehearsal Tasks on a Behavior–Behavior Relation and Its Implications for an Experimental Analysis of Defusion

Training and testing for a transformation of fear and avoidance functions using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure: The first study

“…Subsequently, a traditional Fear-IRAP presented the arbitrary stimuli with pleasant and fear-related statements. A broadly similar pattern of response biases was recorded for the Fear-IRAP as had been observed in previously published studies using pictures of pets and spiders (Leech et al, 2016(Leech et al, , 2017 On balance, when an experiment or study produces or confirms a predicted effect it does seem to be important to determine if there is a contextual variable (or variables) that may reduce or undermine the effect. Such analyses could be important in developing a progressive science that involves reporting both successes and failures within the same study so that future attempts to replicate the effect, and succeed or fail in that regard, may be better understood in terms of the original study.…”

“…Although the research reported by Luciano et al (2013Luciano et al ( , 2014 and Leech et al (2016; see also Leech et al, 2017) may be seen as broadly consistent, it is important to note some fundamental differences. The research by Luciano and colleagues involved training and testing for the derived transformation of functions in the experimental context, whereas the research by Leech and colleagues employed the IRAP as a measure of fear and avoidance that had (presumably) been established in the natural environment (i.e., either through direct experience and/or or human language; i.e., derived relational responding).…”

“…Experiment 2, therefore, was similar to Experiment 1, except that the arbitrary stimuli consisted of a picture of a quoll and a picture of a quokka rather than pictures of a square and a circle. In addition, participants were exposed to two IRAPs, one that focused on fear responses and the other on avoidance responses (similar to Leech et al, 2016Leech et al, , 2017. The purpose of this second experiment, therefore, was to determine if we could replicate the basic effect observed in Experiment 1 for both Fear-and Avoidance-IRAPs but using different arbitrary stimuli.…”

“…Participants who completed the Training-IRAP successfully were exposed immediately to a traditional IRAP (i.e., the Fear-IRAP), similar to that employed by Leech, et al (2016Leech, et al ( , 2017. However, rather than presenting pictures of spiders and pets in the IRAP (with positively and negatively valenced statements; e.g., "I like it" versus "It creeps me out), the label stimuli were pictures of the square and circle shapes.…”

“…Specifically, two relatively unknown Australian marsupials were employed as the arbitrary stimuli (i.e., a quoll and a quokka). In addition, two standard IRAPs were used to test for the transformation of functions; the Fear-and Avoidance-IRAPs employed by Leech et al (2016Leech et al ( , 2017. The results of Experiment 2 failed to replicate the basic effects obtained in the first experiment, but considered together the two experiments raise some interesting questions for future research, which will be considered in the General Discussion.…”