Facilitating Responding in Accordance with the Relational Frame of Comparison: Systematic Empirical Analyses

• Published in: The Psychological record Vol. 58; no. 3; pp. 365 - 390
• Main Authors: Vitale, Agata, Barnes-Holmes, Yvonne, Barnes-Holmes, Dermot, Campbell, Claire
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 22.06.2008; Southern Illinois University Carbondale; The Association for Behavior Analysis International; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adults; Affective Behavior; Behavior; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognitive Psychology; Comparative Analysis; Evaluation; Experiments; Feedback (Psychology); Feedback (Response); Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Inferences; Intervention; Ireland; Patterned Responses; Perspective Taking; Psychology; Researchers; Resistance (Psychology); Statistical Analysis; Stimuli; Stimuli (Psychology); Studies; Theory; Undergraduate Students; Verbal Stimuli; Ireland
• ISSN: 0033-2933; 2163-3452
• DOI: 10.1007/BF03395624

The current article examines patterns of adult responding to different types of more-than and less-than relations, as well as procedures for facilitating responding in accordance with these relations. Using parameters suggested in the three-term series literature, the more-than and less-than relations were separated into six distinct trial types. Systematic comparisons were then drawn between repeated test exposures, the provision of automated feedback, and the presentation of nonarbitrary trials. the results showed that feedback was the most effective intervention for facilitating responding to the target relations. When feedback and nonarbitrary trials were combined, their impact was only marginally better than either intervention alone. These findings are discussed in terms of relational frame theory and interventions for remediating deficits in derived relational responding.