Sam Leigland Gonzaga University ACBS 2014, Minneapolis MN

2. What Does Relational Frame Theoryhave to Contribute to MainstreamCognitive Science, and Vice Versa?(Panel Discussion) Sam Leigland Gonzaga University ACBS 2014, Minneapolis MN

3. Challenge-Based Scientific Progress The Panorama of Psychology… Cognitive Psychology & Cognitive Science— (e.g., Simon, Chemero, Elman)… These Comments— Two Scientific Systems… Possible Contributions between Fields… Also— Relational Frame Theory, and… Functional Contextualism/Contextual Behavioral Science Radical Behaviorism/Behavior Analysis

4. Context: “Cognitive” and “Behavioral” Sciences 3 Meanings of “Cognitive”… Private Events… Complex Verbal/Symbolic Relations… Cognitive Theory in Psychology… (vs. cognitive phenomena, e.g., Skinner)… Framing of Difference: Contrasting Scientific Systems… Methodological Behaviorism(GEP, CP/CS) Radical Behaviorism/Functional Contextualism (Behavior Analysis, Contextual Behavioral Science/RFT)

5. Methodological Behaviorism The mainstream systematic perspective of General Experimental Psychology… Overt, publicly-observable behavior Operational definitions (IV, DV) Inferential theory Testing theories: Experiment (large-N group designs, inferential statistical analysis) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- …Applicable to all areas, all topics… Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology…

6. Characteristics of Radical Behaviorism (1) re Subject Matter…”Behavior” (“what is studied empirically”) Methodological Behaviorism: overt publicly-observable actions Radical Behaviorism: any and all actions, activities, or experiences of the individual organism/person, whether public or private, verbal or nonverbal, social or nonsocial

7. Characteristics of Radical Behaviorism (2) re Goals & Explanation… “the causes of behavior,” or, the variables of which behavior may be observed to be a function… …A Functional Analysis of Behavior Sources of variables: (Env-Beh Interactions) Biology (observed) History of environment-behavior interactions Current/ongoing environmental context/conditions

8. Systems Comparisons: Explanation As an example from Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology illustrates a "top-down" scientific strategy… Starting with ordinary-language psychological terms (thinking, perception) as names for processes, and then analyzing (through experimentation) phenomena apparently associated with the terms… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Behavior Analysis illustrates a "bottom-up" (or inductive) scientific strategy… Where initial empirical discoveries serve as the basis for further research and the extension and expansion of the analysis to increasingly complex phenomena…

9. Systems Comparisons: Explanation (cont’d) All established sciences began as an inductive or "bottom-up" enterprise…Measurement and discovery; observed order and fundamental interactions/variables… Galileo, Lavosier, Helmholz, Mendel, Darwin, Skinner… e.g., Chemistry-- Elements as "Earth Air Fire Water," & dominance for centuries… Lavosier & other early chemists, combining weight, & the birth of modern Chemistry…

10. Systems Comparisons: Explanation (cont’d) In Empirical, Inductive Science (all natural science): A new technical vocabulary (vs. "theoretical" terms from ordinary language) is inevitable, as the important relations derived from an empirical/experimental analysis have no terms available in ordinary language… Behavior Analysis is the only field in the behavioral/psychological sciences With an empirically-based, functionally-defined technical vocabulary that is coherent, integrative, extensive, generalizable, and useful. General Experimental Psychology uses descriptive (for methods or hypotheses) or theoretical (explanation) terms… Researchers may offer new theoretical terms at any point, with definitions normally couched in ordinary-language terms, and thus to compete with other theoretical terms offered by other researchers (or to carve out new theoretical areas)…

11. Cumulative Progress of Behavior Analysis The Respondent-Operant distinction… The ubiquitous 4-Term Operant Contingency… Complex manifestations of reinforcement contingencies over multiple time scales and complex stimulus conditions… Extensions to Human Behavior, and especially Verbal Behavior… Conditional Stimulus Control, Equivalence Relations and Derived Relational Phenomena… Hierarchical Relational phenomena and "Symbolic" stimulus functions…RFT… (where "symbolic" relations can be defined, described, and used, for the first time, without merely employing synonyms for the term "symbolic")… WHERE ALL OF THESE INTERRELATED RESEARCH-BASED INTERACTIONS HAVE FOUND USE IN APPLICATION TO HUMAN AFFAIRS…

12. Cognitive Science offersRelational Frame Theory (CBS)[Functional Analysis of Verbal Behavior (BA)] Offer1— Phenomena: Complex Human/Verbal Behavior… Beyond everyday observation/phenomenology, The experimental findings of cognitive psychology/cognitive science, …Problem Solving (R-Gbeh), Sensory-Motor Skills (CORs), Conversation Analysis, Proactive/Retroactive Interfer., “Mental Rotation” exp., etc….& RFT… -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Offer2— QuestionsRegarding Complex Human/Verbal Behavior… =>How to interpret the scientific explanations of CP/CS in terms of RFT and a Functional Analysis of Verbal Behavior… {example…}

13. Example: Recent Cognitive Theory Precis of The Origin of Concepts (B&BS, 2011, 34, 113-167) …a theory of concepts must specify what it is that determines the content of any given mental symbol (i.e., what determines which concept it is, what determines the symbol’s meaning). (In the context of theories of mental or linguistic symbols, I take “content” to be roughly synonymous with “meaning.”) The theory must also specify how it is that concepts may function in thought, by virtue of what they combine to form propositions and beliefs, and how they function in inferential processes…. …The contents of our mental representations are partly constituted by the set of entities they refer to. Some theories, (e.g., information semantics) claim that reference is determined by causal connections between mental symbols and the entities in their extensions. To the extent this is so, all current psychological theories of concepts are partly on the wrong track: Conceptual content is not exhausted by prototypes, exemplar representations, or theories of the entities in their extensions. (Carey, 2011, pp. 113-114; emphasis added)

14. Relational Frame Theory (CBS)[Functional Analysis of Verbal Behavior (BA)]offers Cognitive Science Offer1—(BA) Methods for the further analysis of cognitive phenomena… Well-documented problems with large-N group designs & parametric inferential statistical analysis (e.g., replication!)… …and a radical methodology built upon direct and systematic replication, single-subject (N-of-1) experimentation (& medical res.)… Challenges to research designs, but opportunities… Note A. Ericsson’s STM res.; in Cognition, what would we find?... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Offer2— Toward Effective Explanation—All Natural Sciences (inductive, “bottom-up”) move in the direction of useful information/Applications, A FUNCTIONAL/CONTEXTUAL PERSPECTIVE AS EXTENSION…

15. Conclusions/Possibilities Cognitive Science (1950s)Behavioral Science (1930s) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ordinary-Language Concepts MB Theory & Experimentation Complex Human Behavior --[meet here…]-- Complex Human Behavior Cumulative Pragmatic Development Inductive Experimental Research