Dermot Barnes-Holmes

• Professor (Full) at University of Ulster

The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) traditionally uses visual stimuli to assess responding to verbal relations. The current study developed a modified IRAP to include the presentation of auditory stimuli. The research aimed to analyze the impact of the use of auditory stimuli (relative to visual stimuli only) on the emergence of two...

The present study evaluated the infuence of relational coherence upon speaker preference and subsequent rule-following behavior. Across two experiments, participants first learned a particular set of conditional relations via a stimulus-pairing procedure (e.g., A1B1, A2B2). Then, the same relations were presented in an MTS task to ensure that parti...

Research on human language started to change when Murray Sidman and colleagues demonstrated that a participant was able to derive unreinforced stimulus relations after conditional discrimination training. This work provided the basis for a novel approach to research on symbolic behavior and fostered the development of three main theoretical account...

This study aimed to build on existing research on the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP), which has identified different patterns of IRAP effects associated with responses to happy and angry facial expressions. In particular, the study aimed to (1) replicate the previously observed happiness superiority effect, but with a far larger pa...

The differential arbitrarily applicable relational responding effects (DAARRE) model explains two effects commonly observed with the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP): the single trial-type dominance effect (STTDE) and the dissonant-target trial-type effect (DTTTE). We sought to explore variables that modulate these effects. Forty-two...

Relational frame theory (RFT) as a behavior-analytic approach to understanding human language and cognition is now over 40 years old. However, the last 8 years have seen a relatively intense period of empirical and conceptual developments within the theory. Some of this work has begun to draw on early and much underplayed features of RFT, including...

The current study explored the influence of different levels of speaker coherence on rule following and speaker preference. In Experiment 1, rules provided by three different speakers were either 100% accurate, 0% accurate, or 50% accurate/inaccurate. Experiment 2 was similar to Experiment 1 except that the speaker's coherence was adjusted to 80% a...

The differential arbitrarily applicable relational responding effects (DAARRE) model explains two effects commonly observed with the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP): the single trial-type dominance effect (STTDE) and the dissonant-target trial-type effect (DTTTE). We sought to explore variables that modulate these effects. Forty-two...

An important distinction has been drawn within the behavior-analytic literature between two types of naming. Naming that is reinforced is referred to as bidirectional naming, and naming that is not reinforced is referred to as incidental bidirectional naming. According to verbal behavior development theory children who demonstrate incidental naming...

Perspective-taking skills are crucial for successful social interactions and some autistic individuals seem to demonstrate great difficulty in this area. The concept continues to generate clinical and research interest across mainstream psychology and within behavior analysis. Within behavior analysis, relational frame theorists have argued that de...

Two experiments tested a basic assumption of the differential arbitrarily applicable relational responding effects (DAARRE) model by examining the extent to which functional (Cfunc) and relational (Crel) properties of stimuli affect performances on the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP). Experiment 1 required participants to complete I...

Studying relating of relational networks is a complex and challenging task. The main objective of the present study was to demonstrate relating within and across relational networks based on same/opposite and bigger/smaller contextual cues and establish antecedent control. After nonarbitrary pretraining of the contextual cues, two nonsense stimulus...

Although the term naming is used colloquially in the English language, it refers to a specific instance of verbal behavior within behavior analysis. Since Horne and Lowe’s (Horne & Lowe, 1996) seminal account on naming, the concept continues to generate clinical and research interest to-date. We conducted a systematic search of the behavior analyti...

Two experiments with human adults investigated the extent to which the transfer of function in accordance with nonarbitrary versus arbitrary stimulus relations may be brought under contextual control. Experiment 1 comprised four phases. Phase 1 consisted of multiple-exemplar training to establish discriminative functions for solid, dashed, or dotte...

Relational frame theory and verbal behavior development theory are two behavior-analytic perspectives on human language and cognition. Despite sharing reliance on Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior, relational frame theory and verbal behavior development theory have largely been developed independently, with initial applications in clinical psyc...

Relational frame theory (RFT) has historically been considered the basic explanatory science behind acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). However, some have argued that there has been an increasing separation between the two in recent years. The primary aim of the current article is to explore the extent to which RFT concepts, particularly those...

The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) was initially developed as a way to assess the strength and probability of natural verbal relations, as defined within relational frame theory (RFT), and was conceptually rooted within the behavior-analytic tradition. However, the IRAP quickly became employed primarily as a measure of implicit cog...

Relational frame theory (RFT) is a modern behavioral account of human language and cognition, which focuses on relations or propositions, rather than associations, as core explanatory constructs. In an attempt to measure such propositions, RFT researchers have developed the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP). It has been argued that th...

Cognitive perspective-taking research has primarily been conducted under the rubric of theory of mind (ToM), with the core skill believed to involve the correct attribution of mental states to oneself and others as a means of explaining and predicting behavior. Relational frame theory (RFT) has provided a behavioral account of performances on true...

The seminal text on relational frame theory (RFT) was published 20 years ago and purported to offer a single overarching behavior-analytic account of human language and cognition. In the years thereafter, an increasing number of empirical and conceptual articles, book chapters in edited volumes, and whole volumes devoted to the account emerged. In...

Both relational frame theory (RFT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are based on the assumption that the evolution of human language (conceptualized as derived relational responding) creates the potential for a form of psychological suffering unique to the human species. Furthermore, it has often been argued that RFT provides the basic s...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

El lenguaje humano y el uso que hacemos de él para comunicarnos o entender el mundo requiere derivar relaciones entre acontecimientos: por ejemplo, si A=B y A=C, entonces B=C. La teoría del marco relacional sostiene que esas interpretaciones son el núcleo de cualquier psicología del lenguaje y la cognición. Desde una edad muy temprana, los seres hu...

Previous studies on naming have presented the object and its name simultaneously during both training and testing, and thus the training component may establish a transformation of function directly between the object and the name. Successful tests for listener naming may thus not require the emergence of a novel (entailed) transformation of functi...

Recent research suggests that fear and avoidance responding based on derived transformation of functions may be considered functionally independent. The current study examined the impact of a fear-related verbal-rehearsal task on performance on two implicit relational assessment procedures (IRAPs), actual approach behavior towards a live spider (a...

Blog post for the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Behaviour Science Dissemination blog series within the blog category "Symbolic Language and Thought" in which we outline our vision for the series (and for research on symbolic language and thought generally) over the coming months as we take over as editors. Link to article po...

Rule-following is affected by multiple variables. A relevant aspect of rules regards whether they "make sense", that is, the extent to which the instruction coheres with previously reinforced patterns of relational responding. The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of relational coherence upon rule-following. After mastering a particular...

The current chapter presents an overview of a line of research that focuses on the behavioral dynamics of arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARRing), and the implications of this research for the on-going development of relational frame theory (RFT) itself. Specifically, the integration of two recent conceptual developments within RFT a...

Executive Summary Throughout its history the strategy and tactics of contextual behavioral science (CBS) research have had distinctive features as compared to traditional behavioral science approaches. Continued progress in CBS research can be facilitated by greater clarity about how its strategy and tactics can be brought to bear on current challe...

Blog post for the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) Behaviour Science Dissemination blog series within the blog category "Symbolic Language and Thought" in which we offer a technical RFT analysis of the verbal self and altered states of consciousness. Link to article post: https://science.abainternational.org/wherever-i-roe-m-t...

A recent systematic review has highlighted that the terms “pliance,” “tracking,” and “augmenting” have rarely been used as the basis for conducting systematic experimental-analytic research since their conception in 1982, despite their theoretical centrality to the study of rule-governed behavior and their presumed impact on psychological suffering...

Rule‐governed behavior and derived stimulus relations have always shared strong conceptual links within behavior analysis. However, experimental analysis linking the two domains remains limited. The current study consisted of three experiments that aimed to continue to bridge this experimental gap. The first experiment sought to establish the exten...

In the target article ‘Functional and Descriptive Contextualism’ the argument is made that Functional Contextualism may benefit from the Interbehavioral tradition. This commentary supports this perspective. The Functional Contextual approach is elaborated, and some of its weaknesses are highlighted. Following this some descriptions of analyses of c...

A reversal design was employed for the analysis of transfer of fear and avoidance through equivalence classes. Two 5‐member equivalence classes (A1‐B1‐C1‐D1‐E1 and A2‐B2‐C2‐D2‐E2) were established. Then B1 and C1 were paired with shock (CS+) and served as SDs in avoidance training (B2 and C2 were trained as CS‐/S∆s for avoidance). Further avoidance...

Two studies are presented that involved exploring four different versions of the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) to target self-relevant stimulus relations. Experiment 1 employed stimuli from previous research that used the IRAP to target stimulus relations pertaining to self, and self-esteem in particular. Experiment 2 aimed to exp...

Recent developments in relational frame theory (RFT) have outlined a number of key variables of potential importance when analyzing the dynamics involved in derived relational responding. Recent research has begun to explore the impact of a number of these variables on persistent rule-following, namely, levels of derivation and coherence. However,...

Rule-governed behavior has long been associated with generating insensitivity to direct contingencies of reinforcement. This insensitivity to environmental changes has also been implicated in human psychological suffering. Recent developments within Relational Frame Theory (RFT) have highlighted the importance of analyzing the dynamics of arbitrari...

The concept of rule-governed behavior or instructional control has been widely recognized for many decades within the behavior-analytic literature. It has also been argued that the human capacity to formulate and follow increasingly complex rules may undermine sensitivity to direct contingencies of reinforcement, and that excessive reliance upon ru...

The current article presents a response to the recent call for a focus on psychological processes of change in psychotherapy. In addressing the need for a more process-based focus, the need for clarity in defining psychological processes per se becomes apparent, before it is possible to develop process-based therapy. In grappling with this challeng...

Experiment 1 of the current research attempted to establish fear and avoidance functions for arbitrary stimuli via combinatorial entailment using training and testing versions of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The critical tests for the transformation of functions involved exposure to two separate Test-IRAPs (one for fear and...

Behavior described as rule-governed, and the ability to engage in arbitrarily applicable derived relational responding, have both been identified as uniquely human abilities and highlighted as potentially important variables in human learning. Recent developments in relational frame theory (RFT) have outlined a number of key variables of potential...

The key purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive overview of the literature on perspective-taking from within mainstream psychology and behavior analysis. The primary focus will be on the behavior-analytic approach to perspective-taking, which is divided into what may be described as (1) traditional behavior analysis; (2) an area withi...

In exploring the extent to which the Implicit Relational Assessment procedure (IRAP) may function as a measure of the derived transformation of functions, it is important to determine if it is also sensitive to particular moderating variables. This was the purpose of the current study, which focused on manipulating three different motivating condit...

A recently published article reported a particular pattern of responding that has been observed on the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), referred to as a Single-Trial-Type-Dominance-Effect (STTDE; Finn, Barnes-Holmes, & McEnteggart in The Psychological Record, 68(1), 11–25, 2018). To account for the phenomenon, the Differential Arbit...

Under a Relational Frame Theory (RFT) framework, researchers have investigated the role of deictic relational responding (perspective-taking) in the analysis of self in relation to others, place, and time. The aim of the current research was to develop IRAPs that targeted deictic relational responding with regard to the mental states of self and ot...

The research used an alternating-treatments design to compare relational responding for five children with diagnosed autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in two teaching conditions. Both conditions used applied behavior analysis; one was usual tabletop teaching (TT), and one was an interactive computerized teaching program, the Teacher-Implicit Relationa...

Evaluative generalization refers to the fact that when evaluative responses towards a (focal) stimulus are established or changed, people change how they respond to non-focal stimuli as well. Whereas evaluative generalization between perceptually similar stimuli has been firmly established, the available evidence for symbolic evaluative generalizat...

In the current study, white participants were exposed to a single-label or multiple-label racial bias IRAP before and after a faking instruction (i.e., two exposures to the IRAP). The faking instruction involved asking all participants to imagine that they were a black person when completing the second IRAP. The results indicated that participants...

The effects of rules on human behaviour have long been identified as important in the psychological literature. The increasing importance of the dynamics of arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR), with regards to rules, has come to be of particular interest within Relational Frame Theory (RFT). One feature of AARR that previous researc...

Studies on equivalence relations have suggested that abstract symbols might acquire emotional functions when related to facial expressions. The present study aimed to investigate the transformation of emotional functions from facial expressions of fear and of happiness to abstract stimuli via equivalence relations. A delayed matching-to-sample task...

Experiment 1 aimed to establish "fearful" and "pleasant" functions for arbitrary stimuli (geometric shapes) by relating those stimuli to pictures of spiders and pets using a training version of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). The transformation of these functions for the arbitrary stimuli was assessed by exposing participants t...

The current article considers how the analysis of language and cognition in RFT may be conceptualized as a multi-dimensional multi-level framework (MDML) for understanding how simple units of analysis specified in RFT connect to more complex units, such as the relating of relational networks, which is seen as critical to narrative and story-telling...

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has been used to assess the probability of arbitrarily applicable relational responding or as an indirect measure of implicit attitudes. To date, IRAP effects have commonly been quantified using the D IRAP scoring algorithm, which was derived from Greenwald, Nosek and Banaji's (2003) D effect size...

Under the rubric of Relational Frame Theory (RFT), researchers have investigated the role of deictic relational responding in the analysis of self in relation to others, place, and time, primarily through the use of an extended developmental protocol (Barnes-Holmes, 2001). In a move towards extending methodologies for studying deictic relational re...

In the current chapter we present a brief summary of how contextual behavioral science has approached the topic of symbolic thought and communication. We begin by considering how behavioral psychology defined and studied symbolic relations prior to the seminal research of Murray Sidman (1994) and his colleagues on stimulus equivalence in the 1970s...

The study investigated how conflicting stimulus–response mappings influenced affordance processing given a manipulation of the functional relations. Participants performed a task involving consistent–inconsistent stimulus–response mappings: Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). They were instructed to confirm or to deny a relation betwee...

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has been used as a measure of implicit cognition and has been used to analyze the dynamics of arbitrarily applicable relational responding. The current study uses the IRAP for the latter purpose. Specifically, the current research focuses on a pattern of responding observed in a previously publish...

The current study examined racial bias among White individuals residing in Ireland using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). In addition, neural activity, measured with electroencephalograms (EEGs), was recorded while participants completed the IRAP. On some blocks of trials, participants were required to respond quickly and accura...

The 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. The article begins with a brief history of the early behavior-analytic approach to human language and cognition, focusing on Skinner’s (1957) text...

The article presents the beginnings of a conceptual framework for analyzing the dynamics of arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARRing). The framework focuses on the dimensions and levels of AARRing that have been the focus of empirical and conceptual analyses in the literature on relational frame theory over the past 30 years. The name...

The current professional interest brief aims to outline the feasibility of using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) in a pilot study of individuals who heard voices and of whom the majority had been given a diagnosis of psychosis, and a comparison sample of non-voice hearing controls against which the clinical data could be compare...

Rule-governed behavior and its role in generating insensitivity to direct contingencies of reinforcement have been implicated in human psychological suffering. In addition, the human capacity to engage in derived relational responding has also been used to explain specific human maladaptive behaviors, such as irrational fears. To date, however, ver...

The current research aimed to examine the implicit biases of smokers and nonsmokers to others who did or did not smoke. Study 1 presented adult smokers and nonsmokers with an Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) that assessed bias toward or against smokers and nonsmokers. Study 2 replicated this with adolescent smokers and nonsmokers. Bo...

The current research aimed to examine the implicit biases of smokers and nonsmokers to others who did or did not smoke. Study 1 presented adult smokers and nonsmokers with an Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) that assessed bias toward or against smokers and nonsmokers. Study 2 replicated this with adolescent smokers and nonsmokers. Bo...

The current study examined the impact of a brief “verbal rehearsal” task on performance on two Implicit Relational Assessment Procedures (IRAPs), actual approach behavior towards a live spider (a BAT), and the relationship between the IRAPs and the BAT. Participants first completed the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ), followed by one of two ver...

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) proposes that derived relational responding is crucial to the development of verbal behavior. According to RFT, typically developing children acquire the ability to derive relations through natural language interactions. In contrast, children with autism often do not acquire these skills as readily and require interven...

The present study examined levels of racial bias among black and white individuals residing in Ireland using the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) and a range of questionnaire measures. The IRAP required participants to respond quickly and accurately on a computer-based task. On some blocks of trials participants were required to resp...

Although the commentaries on our target paper (De Houwer, Hughes, & Barnes-Holmes, 2017) reveal general agreement about the fact that interactions between functional and cognitive researchers are possible, there is disagreement about (1) whether such interactions can be beneficial, (2) the optimal way of interacting, and (3) the maximal extent to w...

Within relational frame theory, a distinction has been made between three types of rule-governed behavior known as pliance, tracking, and augmenting. This review examined whether there is support for the concepts of pliance, tracking, and augmenting in the experimental analysis of behavior; whether these concepts refer to distinct functional classe...

Relational Frame Theory (RFT) proposes that derived relational responding is crucial to the development of verbal behavior. According to RFT, typically developing children acquire the ability to derive relations through natural language interactions. In contrast, children with autism often do not acquire these skills as readily and require interven...

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has been used to assess the probability of arbitrarily applicable relational responding or as an indirect measure of implicit attitudes. To date, IRAP effects have commonly been quantified using the DIRAP scoring algorithm, which was derived from Greenwald, Nosek and Banaji’s (2003) D effect size...

Across four studies we demonstrate that effects obtained from the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), like those obtained from other indirect procedures, are not impervious to strategic manipulation. In Experiment 1, we found that merely informing participants to ‘fake’ their performance without providing a concrete strategy to do so d...

The current article is a brief summary of recent research in relational responding with an emphasis on the Ghent Odysseus Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (GO-IRAP) for teaching this important skill to children with diagnosed autism. Relational responding, especially derived (emergent, untaught) relational responding is thought to be relate...

Despite their application in virtually every area of psychological science indirect procedures have rarely been used to study how Catholic and Protestants automatically respond to one another in Northern Ireland. What little evidence that does exist suggests that automatic ingroup favoritism occurs alongside outgroup derogation. That is, Catholics...

The functional–cognitive framework for psychological research implies that functional and cognitive researchers operate at two separate but mutually supportive levels of explanation. From a functional–cognitive perspective, all applied psychologists are ultimately directed at the functional level but they can differ in the way they conduct function...

It has been argued that obese individuals evaluate high caloric, palatable foods more positively than their normal weight peers, and that this positivity bias causes them to consume such foods, even when healthy alternatives are available. Yet when self-reported and automatic food preferences are assessed no such evaluative biases tend to emerge. W...