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An Overview of RFT and its Relevance to OBM

2. This presentation will be available for download at ericfox.comMost of this material was stolen from my free, web-based tutorial on RFT at ContextualPsychology.org. 3. OBM Needs RFT (or something like it). Virtually all OBM work is conducted with verbally competent adultsMost OBM interventions are verbal in nature or contain a verbal componentTo progress the field we need a viable, technical, behavioral analysis of verbal behavior and languageSkinner's analysis of verbal behavior is not cutting it.

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An Overview of RFT and its Relevance to OBM

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    1. 1 An Overview of RFT and its Relevance to OBM

    2. 2 This presentation will be available for download at ericfox.com Most of this material was stolen from my free, web-based tutorial on RFT at ContextualPsychology.org

    3. 3 OBM Needs RFT (or something like it) Virtually all OBM work is conducted with verbally competent adults Most OBM interventions are verbal in nature or contain a verbal component To progress the field we need a viable, technical, behavioral analysis of verbal behavior and language Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior is not cutting it

    4. 4 OBM is Conducted with Verbal Adults Verbal adults served as participants in 100% of the 23 articles published in JOBM from 1997 to 2001 (Culig, Dickinson, McGee, & Austin, 2005) Verbal adults served as participants in only 33% of the articles in JABA

    5. 5 OBM Interventions are Often Verbal Most commonly used interventions in JOBM (Culig et al., 2005): 52% performance feedback 23% praise 23% goals 17% training 17% antecedents 13% monetary rewards 9% non-monetary rewards

    6. 6 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Skinner is my superhero I have every one of his books on my bookshelf Verbal Behavior is a brilliant, remarkable book Skinner’s kryptonite: he did not have our data on derived stimulus relations

    7. 7 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior The definition of verbal behavior is not functional The definition of verbal behavior is too broad The definition of verbal stimuli is not functional The listener’s behavior is not verbal

    8. 8 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Verbal behavior: Any behavior on the part of a speaker reinforced through the mediation of a listener who is trained by a verbal community so as to mediate such reinforcement VB is defined not on the basis of the individual behaving organism’s history and context, but on the basis of the history of another organism!

    9. 9 Ralphie Rat obtains food pellets in an operant chamber on a VR5 schedule arranged by a researcher

    10. 10 Ronnie Rat obtains food pellets in an operant chamber on a VR5 schedule due to a small hole in a food pellet bag leaning next to the chamber

    11. 11 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Ralphie Rat obtains food pellets in an operant chamber on a VR5 schedule arranged by a researcher Ronnie Rat obtains food pellets in an operant chamber on a VR5 schedule due to a small hole in a food pellet bag leaning next to the chamber

    12. 12 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Verbal behavior: Discriminated operant, distinguished only by a special source of reinforcement The source of reinforcement is not quite so special….it would include virtually all social behavior, including a rat and experimenter interacting via an operant chamber!

    13. 13 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior “Our definition of verbal behavior, incidentally includes the behavior of experimental animals where reinforcements are supplied by an experimenter or by an apparatus designed to establish contingencies which resemble those maintained by the normal listener. The animal and experimenter comprise a small but genuine verbal community” (Skinner, 1957, footnote 11, p. 108).

    14. 14 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior Verbal stimulus: The product of verbal behavior This is an odd way to classify a stimulus (in behavior analysis) Some of Skinner’s verbal operants are defined by the relation between a response and an antecedent verbal stimulus Intraverbal: a verbal response controlled by a verbal stimulus (with no formal correspondence)

    15. 15 One of these things is not like the other….

    16. 16 Limitations of Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior The role of the listener in any verbal episode “is not necessarily verbal in any special sense” (Skinner, 1957, p. 2) How do listeners “understand” complex, novel rules? How do rules “specify” contingencies?

    17. 17 Without a technical analysis of verbal behavior, it is not surprising: That the effects of verbal interventions such as “feedback” are inconsistent (Alvero et al. 2001; Balcazar et al. 1985) That there is little agreement as to the basic principles underlying the effects of “feedback” That Verbal Behavior is rarely cited in JOBM, despite the fact that verbal behavior is ubiquitous in OBM interventions and settings That some in OBM are desperately turning to mentalistic approaches (e.g., positive psychology) to invigorate the field

    18. 18 Relational Frame Theory: What It Ain’t A theory of stimulus equivalence It accounts for the phenomenon known as stimulus equivalence, but is a theory of language and cognition Just another way of talking about stimulus equivalence RFT uses terms that are more general and applicable to all stimulus relations; Sidman’s terms (from mathematical set theory) only apply to equivalence relations

    19. 19 Derived Stimulus Relations

    20. 20 Derived Stimulus Relations

    21. 21 Derived Stimulus Relations

    22. 22 Derived Stimulus Relations

    23. 23 Transformation of Stimulus Functions

    24. 24 Accounting for Derived Stimulus Relations & Stimulus Equivalence “My own theorizing has been directed not so much at an explanation of equivalence relations but rather, at the formulation of a descriptive system—a consistent, coherent, and parsimonious way of defining and talking about the observed phenomena.” (Sidman, 1994)

    25. 25 Accounting for Derived Stimulus Relations & Stimulus Equivalence “…I suggested that we have to consider seriously the possibility that equivalence is a basic stimulus function, not derivable from more fundamental processes. I now believe more strongly in this possibility.” (Sidman, 1994)

    26. 26 Accounting for Derived Stimulus Relations & Stimulus Equivalence RFT: equivalence (and derived stimulus relations in general) is a learned operant Specifically, deriving stimulus relations is a special, generalized form of relational responding: arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR) AARR = relational framing

    27. 27 Relational Responding

    28. 28 Relational Responding

    29. 29 Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding

    30. 30 Trained Relations

    31. 31 Derived Relations

    32. 32 Derived Relations Alter Functions

    33. 33 RFT & Complex Behavior: Problem Solving

    34. 34 RFT & Complex Behavior: Analogies

    35. 35 RFT & Complex Behavior: Rule Governance

    36. 36 OBM Needs RFT (or something like it) Virtually all OBM work is conducted with verbally competent adults Most OBM interventions are verbal in nature or contain a verbal component To progress the field we need a viable, technical, behavioral analysis of verbal behavior and language Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior is not cutting it

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