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

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Abstract

This 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, with a focus on basic rather than applied research. 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 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 et al., 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, particularly 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.

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Notes

  1. According to RFT, it is the exemplar training that is critical in establishing derived relational responding, not naming per se (see Luciano, Becerra, & Valverde, 2007); naming is seen as just one way in which multiple-exemplar training may occur in the natural verbal environment.

  2. The term deictic is used here to refer to verbal relations that specify an individual as located in a particular space (e.g., “here” rather than “there”) and at a particular time (e.g., “now” rather than “then”).

  3. Relational complexity itself may be defined along more than one dimension, such as the number of relata, frames, and/or contextual cues in a network. In some cases, therefore, identifying a single continuum of relational complexity may require appropriate multidimensional scaling (e.g., Borg & Groenen, 2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Dermot Barnes-Holmes, Martin Finn, Ciara McEnteggart & Yvonne Barnes-Holmes

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  1. Dermot Barnes-Holmes
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  2. Martin Finn
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  3. Ciara McEnteggart
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  4. Yvonne Barnes-Holmes
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Correspondence to Dermot Barnes-Holmes.

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This article was prepared with the support of an Odysseus Group 1 grant awarded to the first author by the Flanders Science Foundation (FWO).

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Barnes-Holmes, D., Finn, M., McEnteggart, C. et al. Derived Stimulus Relations and Their Role in a Behavior-Analytic Account of Human Language and Cognition. Perspect Behav Sci 41, 155–173 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-017-0124-7

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