Final Exam Flashcards
Observational Learning
Ability to learn by observing the experience of others
Examples of Observational Learning
– Lab-reared monkeys were initially unafraid of
snakes (never had a bad experience with snakes)
– They observed other monkeys (reared in the wild)
behaving fearfully toward snakes
– The lab-reared monkeys soon became intensely
fearful of snakes too.
– It is now known that even classical conditioning of
phobias can be produced through observation (a
“real” aversive personal experience not required)
Observational Learning:
the Octopus and the Crab
• Get an octopus • Place a crab (yummy for an octopus) in a jar with a lid. • If the octopus unscrews the lid, it can eat the crab. • The basic law of effect at work.
Vicarious Reinforcement
Observer looks
on as a model is reinforced for a behavior
– Observer more likely to imitate the behavior of
the model.
Vicarious Punishment
Observer looks on as
a model is punished for a behavior.
– Observer more likely to refrain from behaving
like the model.
Rosecrans & Hartup (1967)
• Nursery school children observed an adult
playing aggressively with toys (poking,
hitting, etc.)
– Reinforcement condition: model was praised by
another when behaving aggressively.
– Punishment condition: model scolded and
criticized when behaving aggressively.
– Children then allowed to play with the toys, and
their aggressive play was measured.
Miller-Dollard Reinforcement
Theory of Observational Learning
• Observational learning is a subset of operant
conditioning
• Observer’s behavior changes due to
consequences of the observer’s behavior, not
the model’s.
• Based on the notion of generalized imitation
Generalized Imitation
• We learn to imitate others via operant conditioning.
• Through prior experience with observational
learning, we learn that imitating others’ behavior
may provide reinforcement to ourselves.
• We generalize from one imitation situation to
others.
• If we were often punished when we imitated others
(even if the other was reinforced), we would
probably stop imitating others.
• So, we learn to imitate others because doing so
often brings rewards to us.
Tolman & Honzik (1930)
– Food-deprived rats were placed in a maze with
only one route of escape. Studied over three
weeks.
– Rats placed in 1 of 3 conditions:
• Always Reinforced: Rats reinforced with food upon
escape from maze.
• Never Reinforced: No food provided upon escape.
• Wandering Group: For 10 days, rats not reinforced upon
escape. From day 11 onward, rats reinforced upon
escape.
– Outcome variable: Number of errors (wrong turns)
until escape.
Tolman: Latent Learning
• The idea of latent learning suggests that
learning may occur in animals without being
demonstrated until the reward is presented.
• Learning remains latent (hidden) until the
organism has a reason to use it.
• For Tolman, reinforcement doesn’t create
learning. Instead, reinforcement creates
motivation for using what was already learned.
Learning vs. Performance
• Learning occurs constantly regardless of
reinforcement or motivation.
• Motivation can lead to a demonstration of
learning.
• Performance: The translation of learning
into behavior.
Tolman: Cognitive Maps
• Tolman said the rats who were allowed to
wander and explore had acquired a “cognitive
map” of the maze.
• A cognitive map is a mental representation in
the brain of the layout of an environment and
its features.
• The wandering rats simply learned the maze
by observation, so they could get to the food
quicker than rats who had not built up a
cognitive map
Critics of Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps
• Most textbooks cite this study as a conclusive
demonstration that learning does not require
reinforcement.
• This is true.
• But no one ever claimed that all learning
requires reinforcement.
• Skinner acknowledge classical conditioning
and observational learning and many other
influences on behavior.
• The appeal to “cognitive maps” as explanatory
constructs is problematic.
• Many studies by biologists have failed to show
that rats behave in ways that could be called
“following a map.”
• People, too, are terrible at making maps of
even well-traversed areas.
• When using maps, people are constantly
scanning the environment for landmarks and
cues. How do rats use their maps?
Stimulus Discrimination
• Stimulus discrimination is the tendency for
behaviors to occur in certain situations and
not others.
• i.e., to occur in the presence of certain
stimuli but not in their absence.
• A behavior that occurs only in certain
contexts is said to be under stimulus
control
Discriminative Stimuli (DS)
A DS is a stimulus that signals that a behavior will or will not be reinforced (or punished) The light could be used as a DS: On=(reinforced if bar is pressed) Off=(not reinforced if bar pressed)
Discrimination Training
• Any procedure for establish stimulus control is called
discrimination training.
– You are trying to get the organism to behave in the right way in
the right circumstances (in the presence of particular stimuli).
• Porter & Neuringer (1984): Pigeons were trained to
discriminate between the music of Bach and Stravinsky.
– They were reinforced when pecking a “Bach disk” only when
Bach’s music was playing.
– They were reinforced to pecking a “Stravinsky disk” only when
Stravinsky’s music was playing.
– Eventually, through stimulus generalization, they could
discriminate between music similar to Bach or Stravinsky, even
when they had never heard the music before.
Discrimination Training 2
• Simultaneous Discrimination: a choice is
made between two stimuli, only one of
which is reinforced.
• Eventually, the organism will choose the
stimulus that results in reinforcement.
Stimulus Control
• When the presence of a discriminative
stimulus reliably affects the probability of a
behavior, we say that the behavior is under
stimulus control.
• Example:
– A tone signals that lever pressing will lead to
water.
– Tone: Lever press water
– Lever pressing is under stimulus control when
pressing only occurs when the tone is on.
Examples of Stimulus Control
• At red lights, we stop; at green lights, we
proceed.
• If someone smiles at us, we smile at them.
• When we hear an ambulance siren behind us,
we slow down or pull our car to the roadside.
• When the professor begins lecturing, students
cease talking among themselves.
• Whether a sign says “open” or “closed” controls
whether we try to enter a store.
• When the phone rings, we answer it.
– How often do you pick up a non-ringing telephone
and say “hello”?
Work/study habits often under stimulus control
• German poet Friedrich Schiller (Ode to Joy). – Early notable writing near an apple orchard. – Later, when traveling, he placed rotten apples in his desk to motivate writing. – Apples were a DS for writing. • Favorite places to study, types of pen, paper, etc. might reflect our history of reinforcement for working
Third Wave Behavior Therapies
• 1
st wave: Classical Behavior Therapies: Operant,
Classical Pavlovian, and skill modeling methods
(includes Applied Behavior Analysis)
• 2
nd wave: Cognitive Behavior Therapies (CBT):
Eclectic use of classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, modeling, and cognitive restructuring
(changing thoughts).
• 3
rd wave: Newer approaches that incorporate wave 1
with newer “acceptance” or “mindfulness”
techniques.
– Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
– Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
– Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy
Cognition in Therapy
• CBT correctly notes that disturbed people
have certain typical thoughts (“I’m a loser,”
“That will harm me,” “No one likes me.”)
• CBT proposes that the content of the
thoughts are the problem (they are
irrational, over-generalized, unsupported by
evidence, etc.).
• In CBT, the contents must be challenged and
replaced.
Cognition in Therapy 2
Third Wave perspective acknowledges that private
events (words, images) are associated with
disturbance.
• However, the content of thoughts aren’t necessarily
important.
• It is their function that matters: how we respond to
them.
• Many different words and images might have the
same function of disturbing us and inhibiting our
behavior, just as external stimuli do.
• Do not have to change thoughts; change their
function, their effect on us.
Relational Framing and Pathology
• Being bit by a dog is a real punishing event; we will
feel pain and avoid the dog in the future, just like any
other organism would (that is adaptive).
• But when bit, people also behave privately and
verbally, putting the experience in relational frames.
• We think “dog” (or “jumjaw”), “pain,” etc., and have
images of dogs.
• Unlike other organisms, we might not merely be
distressed when we see a dog, but we might respond
to words, thoughts, images as well, even though
these are not real contingencies in our environment.
• Our private events have new derived functions, and
we become miserable (clip: nonverbal organism).
Relational Framing and Pathology
2
• We can frame events as good (reinforcing, pleasing)
or as bad (punishing).
• We have learned the rule: “Avoid what is bad.”
• Not all real dogs are bad, and the word “dog” and
images of dogs are not bad.
• Yet we might avoid all dogs and any private events
that reminds us of dogs.
• This is called experiential avoidance.
• By letting private events affect us, by following verbal
rules, we might become dysfunctional and unable to
get what we want out of life.
According to RFT and ACT
Normal language & cognition are at the heart of most suffering. If that is true, why don’t we all struggle with anxiety, depressed moods, insecurities, fears, etc….?
… we do
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ACT
- A-ccept your reactions and be present
- C-hoose a valued direction
- T-ake action
The aim of ACT
• Help people create a full and meaningful life,
while effectively handling the pain that life
inevitably brings
• ACT does not necessarily aim at symptom
reduction.
• ACT teaches you psychological skills to deal
with your painful thoughts and feelings
effectively– in such a way that they have much
less impact and influence over you.
• You are changing their function.
Sources of Pathology: FEAR
• F-usion with your thoughts
– Failing to make a distinction between self and your
thoughts, images, language
– We often have a frame: I am (=) my thoughts, and my
thoughts are (=) me. (clip: you are your thoughts)
• E-valuation of experience
– Judging and reacting to thoughts, images, and language
(because of fusion)
• A-voidance of your experience
– Avoiding stimuli, thoughts & images via distractions,
compulsions, drugs, social isolation, etc.
• R-eason giving for your behavior
– Trying to make sense of, or explain, your thoughts, images,
or language (possibly creating even more words & worries)
Traditional CBT
CBT increases your evaluation and reason-giving
• From an ACT point of view, these kinds of interventions
could elaborate and complicate the network, and
paradoxically increase the functions of negative thoughts
Thought Suppression and Change of Beliefs
• Thought Rebound
– When people try to suppress unwanted thoughts,
they later experience the thoughts more
frequently (Daniel Wegner’s “White Bear” study)
– Robust finding for emotion-laden and neutral
thoughts.
– Experiential avoidance (trying to avoid certain
thoughts and images) often makes things worse
• CBT effects are not lasting: the so-called “automatic
thoughts” that people try to change or “put out of
mind” do often return after treatmen
Some ACT skills:
• 1. Cognitive defusion (aka de-literalization): recognizing
that thoughts are just thoughts; they are not the real
world and they are not you.
– Treat thoughts and feelings as external events, almost like
another person (Hayes: name your mind, e.g. George).
• 2. Acceptance: Instead of avoidance, be aware of what’s
going on inside, but do not try to change it.
– Acceptance does not mean liking or agreeing; it means a
willingness to simply experience without reacting.
• 3. Self-as-context:
– Develop a secure “I” from which to view experience, but
distinct from what is viewed.
– Notice who is noticing things
After Acceptance, what next?
Values & Committed Actions
• Values are chosen directions in life.
• Committed actions are specific behavioral
goals that are in service of your values.
• Many standard operant methods and other
learning principles can be used to facilitate
these committed actions.
Bubble in the Road Metaphor
You are a soap bubble moving along a path
you have chosen.
• Another bubble blocks you and says “stop”
and you can’t get around it.
• You have two choices:
– You can stop moving in a valued direction, or
– you can touch the other bubble, and continue
with it inside you.
• The other bubble is your thoughts, feelings
and memories.
Evidence for Efficacy
• ACT is considered an empirically validated
treatment “with modest support” by APA
• ACT has shown evidence for efficacy (over 30
clinical trials) for a variety of problems
including chronic pain, addictions, smoking
cessation, depression, anxiety, psychosis,
workplace stress, and diabetes management.
Different Change Processes
Pre-Post reductions in the believability of depressive thoughts
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
• Marsha Linehan • Developed as an outpatient treatment for borderline personality disorder, but is now applied to other complex disorders • Principles drawn from behavior and cognitive therapies, but also from acceptance & mindfulness methods adopted from meditation practices
Borderline Personality Disorder
DSM-5
• Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined
abandonment
• Pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal
relationships (alternate valuing and devaluing)
• Identity disturbance, unstable self image
• Intense, over-reactive emotional responses
• Impulsivity that is self damaging (sex, eating,
driving)
• Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures or
threats, or self mutilating behavior
The Dialectics of DBT
Main tension in treatment is between promoting change (behavior therapy) and acceptance (mindfulness). Linehan: “A client is doing the best they can in the moment AND they need to do better.”
DBT Skills Training
• Acceptance Skills: – Mindfulness – Distress Tolerance (anxiety, frustration, sadness, are a part of life) Change Skills: – Interpersonal Effectiveness (social skills for meeting needs w/o conflict) – Emotion Regulation (identify & label emotions; recognize triggering events; problemsolving; emotional substitution; physical health
Traditional DBT Treatment
1. Individual Psychotherapy (1-2 times per week) + 2. Group Skills Training 3. Team Consultation (for benefit of therapists too) 4. Telephone Consultation (stay connected)
Does DBT work?
• Yes, much empirical support.
• Significantly reduced self-harm behaviors and
self-harm urges
• Fewer psychiatric hospitalizations
• Decreased feelings of depression,
hopelessness, anger
• More likely to stay and complete treatment
Not all communication is language
In nonhuman organisms, communication is
akin to modal action patterns: species specific,
unlearned, stereotypical, triggered
by specific stimuli.
Bird songs
Mating rituals: song and dance
Bees dance to communicate the direction and
distance of food.
Ants communicate chemically, sending signals
to other ants about food or danger.
Semanticity
The property of language that accounts for the communication of
meaning (meanings are expressed by speakers and understood by
listeners)
Generativity
The property of language that accounts for the capacity to use a
limited number of words to produce an infinite variety of
expressions, including new sentences we’ve never heard or spoken
before
“My tiny hands are the color of sunrise in Montana.”
Displacement
The property of language that accounts for the capacity to
communicate about matters that are not in the here-and-now
Language is
Meaningful Capable of infinite growth Abstract (dissociated from any specific present stimuli) o “government” o reference to past & future
Development of Language 1
1-2 months Crying, Cooing (ooh, ahh) 4 Months Babbling Stage– spontaneous production of phonemes, including sounds from many different languages. 8-16 months “Native” language babbling First words by year 1 (Ma, Da, Ba)
Development of Language 2
2 yrs Telegraphic Speech (2-3 words, “Puppy do trick”) Sentences follow rules of syntax 2-3 yrs multiword sentences 4 yrs Adult-like speech, grammar fairly well mastered
Skinner’s Perspective….
verbal learning
Verbal behavior is operant behavior—it is something we
do: we speak, answer questions, we write, we listen, etc.
We know how nonverbal operant behavior is controlled:
reinforcement, punishment, extinction, stimulus
control.
Skinner thought the same learning principles might be
used to explain language.
Skinner’s book was an interpretation of verbal behavior
(never conducted research on it).
What is meaning?
Am. Heritage Dictionary: “the thing one intends
to convey, esp. in language.”
Skinner did not think the concept of meaning was
useful in scientific research, especially if meaning
was treated as an entity in a mind.
Cognitive view of meaning
The meaning of a word is the
idea (concept or mental
representation) that a word
is associated with
Behaviorist view of meaning
Meaning is ostensively defined (pointing) or based on synonymity (paraphrase) Meaning given by pointing and paraphrasing.
Skinner on meaning…
Meaning is not a concept in a mind; the meaning of an
utterance is determined by the use of words.
When someone says the right thing at the right time,
they know the meaning of what they are saying.
How would you know you have learned a new tribal
language (meaning of words), except by using words
correctly in context?
Words for “private events,” like “pain,” are learned in
public contexts.
Summary of Skinner’s proposal
Verbal behavior is operant behavior and is largely
learned by the same principles as nonverbal
behavior.
Verbal behavior is controlled by specific
antecedents–the speaker’s motivational state or
discriminative stimuli in the environment (either
verbal or nonverbal stimuli)
Types of Verbal Operants
Skinner identified several types of verbal behaviors
that are operant in nature (and subject to
reinforcement and punishment).
Four of these (and there are more) are:
Echoics (Repeating what is heard)
Mands (Requesting)
Tacts (Labeling)
Intraverbals (Answering questions / Conversation)
Verbal Behavior follows the Law of Effect
Verbal behavior is strengthened by reinforcement :
Praise and attention from others
Automatic reinforcement (correct imitation of others
can be intrinsically reinforcing)
Verbal behavior is weakened by extinction (no response)
or by punishment (“wrong”)
Acquisition of complex verbal behavior
Infants do not spontaneously produce complex human speech. Parents must use shaping of infant babbling to bring about successive approximations to acceptable speech.
How much have researchers discovered about
Skinner’s ideas on language?
Very little.
From 1963 to 2004 (40 years), only 91
empirical studies were published that utilized
Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior.
43 on mands
22 on tacts
12 on echoics
14 on intraverbals
That’s 2.27 studies per year: not a sign of a
productive research program
Not a bad record for an individual researcher
How much have researchers discovered about
Skinner’s ideas on language? 2
Few of the studies were about typically developing
individuals
Most research has been conducted with children
with developmental disabilities such as autism.
Programs using Skinnerian VB principles can help autistic
children to development language skills, with less
disabled children sometimes becoming indistinguishable
from non-disabled peers.
But it is not clear what the implications are for
typically developing children and adu
Evidence Supporting Skinner’s View
language
Betty Hart & Todd Risley (1995): Longitudinal study
of development in children
Assessed parental behavior and child behavior in
homes.
Ages 1, 3, and 9 years.
“The data reveal that the most important aspect of
children’s language experience is its amount.”
Babies whose parents talked more, who provided the
most guidance, feedback, and responsiveness to
language (in 1st year) had the best verbal skills later in
life.
This is consistent with Skinner’s view that propr
language requires a great deal of influence from the
verbal community
Evidence Supporting Skinner’s View
(language)
2
A few lab studies of adults have shown that selective
reinforcement can increase the frequencies of certain linguistic
expressions.
Herbert Quay (1959) attempted to influence the content of
student conversations using verbal reinforcement.
Discussion of childhood experiences with an experimenter
After a baseline period of discussion:
Half reinforced (uh-hmm) for family topics, not otherwise
Half reinforced for non-family topics (school, friends), not otherwise
Why such meager impact of Skinner’s VB?
he Cognitive Revolution:
Behaviorism as a meta-theory began to decline in the 1960s.
Partly due to the rise of information theory, cybernetics,
and the development of high speed electronic computing
machines. Mind was back . . . .
Many people attribute the
downfall of behaviorism to
a book review that appeared
in the late 1950s.
Chomsky, N. (1959). A Review of B.F. Skinner’s
Verbal Behavior. Language, 35, 26-58
The problem of generativity
Chomsky and most critics believe that Skinner’s
operant approach cannot account for the rapid,
creative, and complex growth of language.
It’s speed of growth in childhood is remarkable
It’s creativity: Uttering complex novel sentences we’ve
never heard (children: “Me goed to the store.”)
“Poverty of the Stimulus:” A child cannot learn
language strictly through reinforcement and imitation
because of the limited language samples children are
given, and the little explicit instruction that a child
receives from parents and others.
Chomsky’s Solution: Look inside . . . .
Generativity
Humans are genetically predisposed (hard-wired) to develop
language.
Species-specific neurological/cognitive system in human brains
that supports language acquisition— “Language Acquisition Device”
or LAD.
LAD contains a universal grammar – an innate knowledge of rules
common to all languages which allows children with sufficient
vocabulary to create new combinations of words, which they may
never have heard before
Children are exposed to small samples of language, and LAD infers
a finite set of grammar rules.
Language acquisition is influenced by a verbal community, not
controlled by it.
Relational Frames
“Patterns of arbitrarily applicable relational
responding with the derived characteristics of
mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment,
and transformation of stimulus functions.”
Just 6 concepts to learn:
Relational responding
Arbitrarily applicable relations
Derived relations–
Mutual entailment
Combinatorial entailment
Transformation of stimulus functions
Non-Relational Responding
Responding to a stimulus solely on the basis of its absolute
physical characteristics (e.g., color, shape).
Reinforcement is not based on
any relations among the circles.
Must simply be able to recognize
(discriminate) redness.
Relational Responding
Responding to a stimulus on the basis of the relative characteristics of two or more stimuli. Reinforcement is based on the relation “biggest,” regardless of the position of the circles.
Relational and Non-relational
Green, Yellow, Square and Circle are non-relational properties.
You can just look at a single object and say whether it has the
property of being yellow or being a circle.
Bigger, Smaller; Louder; Darker; Top, Bottom, Middle; LeftMost
and Right-Most are relational properties.
Must make a comparison with other objects, i.e., the relations
among them.
You can’t just look at a single object and say it is “bigger” or “darker.”
Bigger or darker than what? A relation is implied.
Relational and non-relational 2
The capacity for relational responding is necessary but not
sufficient for language.
Most organisms can learn to respond to relations.
Pigeons and chickens and rats can learn to pick the “middle object,” regardless of
what the objects are.
Monkeys learn to point to the “biggest stick” to get a banana.
These relations are actual physical relations that can be
discriminated by the organism. e.g., relative size and position.
A method for studying relational responding
One important type of relation is “equivalence” or “is
the same as.”
Why is this relational?
If I hold up a pencil and ask you “Is this the same?” you
have to ask “the same as what?”
A method for studying equivalence relations is called
the “Delayed Matching-to-Sample” method.
Delayed Matching-To-Sample
Must learn the relation “is the
same as.”
Called an “equivalence relation.”
The organism can be trained, via reinforcement, to pick the stimulus that matches the sample.
Non-arbitrary Relations
Here, the equivalence is based on
sameness of actual physical properties,
i.e., shape and color equivalence.
Arbitrary & Non-Arbitrary Relations
Which is bigger, a nickel or a dime? Physically, non-arbitrarily, the nickel. Arbitrarily, by convention, the dime is bigger in value (is worth more economically)
Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding
In the next example, the relations among the stimuli are
not based on matching the same physical characteristics.
The relations are defined arbitrarily
Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding
Normally developing English speaking adults respond in accordance with a wide variety of verbal cues for arbitrarily applicable relations. is the same as is equivalent to means is equal to is parallels is similar to is like is identical to
Arbitrariness
The ability to learn arbitrary relations is necessary but not
sufficient for language.
A rat can be trained to pick a picture of a tree when it is shown a
red triangle.
Still necessary for language: related to the arbitrarily symbolic
nature of language.
Any sound or squiggle on paper can be trained to “be the same as” or
“to mean” a tree.
The sound “tree” and the written squiggles can arbitrarily
symbolizes a tree.
So far . . . .
The following are necessary (but not sufficient) for language
to develop:
Ability to respond to relations among stimuli (biggest, leftmost,
etc), not just to absolute properties (red, square).
Ability to respond to equivalence relations in matching-to sample
(red = red; blue = blue).
Ability to respond to arbitrary equivalence relations (red =
blue; triangle = tree).
Underived Relations
An underived relation is one that is explicitly taught
through training.
One relation that can be taught is mutual entailment:
A = B and also B = A
Learning Arbitrary Relational Responding
When children are taught to name objects, they are
provided with masses of explicit bi-directional training
After a history of explicit bi-directional training, humans learn
the rule:
Name = Object, and Object = Name.
Derived Relations
After a history of explicit bi-directional training, humans trained with A = B (to the left)
will spontaneously derive B = A (they will pick A when B is presented for the first time).
No other organism will do this. When presented with B as the sample here, other organisms
randomly choose between A and C (regardless of previous bi-directional training
with other stimuli).
Combinatorial Entailment
Mutual Entailment is a derived relation between two things
in which one direction is trained and the other is derived
Teach A=B; derive B=A.
Combinatorial Entailment requires three items to be related.
A relation between two of those items can be derived even though there
is no explicit training in either direction.
Teach A=B, A=C
Humans derive not only B=A and C=A (mutual entailment), but also
C=B and B=C.
Derived relations and language
Now we have two things (apparently) that only humans can do.
No animal has ever been shown to derive either mutual
entailment or combinatorial entailment for arbitrary relations.
If a chimp is taught A = B (in matching-to-sample), it does not
derive that B = A.
In humans, mutual entailment appears at about 12-17 months
Combinatorial entailment at 20-24 months.
Relational Framing and Symbolism
Provides model for how words refer to, stand for, or
symbolize other things (and other words)
Derived Relations Alter Functions
Stimulus functions are associated
characteristics of a stimulus that we
respond to.
“wug kekkim”
You get an email from your roommate: “Hey, FYI, there’s a
wug kekkim in your bedroom.”
What does this make you want to do?
Follow-up email: “wug kekkim” means “birthday present.”
What happens now?
Alternative email: “wug kekkim” means “brown recluse
spider.”
See the difference?
For humans with language, arbitrary sounds and marks can
have a powerful affect on emotions and behavior in a way
that has not been found (yet) in any other species.
Transformation of Functions
If someone has a fear of dogs, and they are told that ‘jumjaw’ is another
word for dog, then fear may be elicited upon hearing ‘Here comes a jumjaw!’
Relational Framing and Generativity
Small number of directly trained relations can
result in enormous number of derived
relations
Relational frames as complex operants
Relational frames are not things; they are patterns
of responding.
A football is a thing; a football game is a process.
Some people prefer to say “relational framing” to
emphasize action (behavior)
Behaviorists say: Don’t do this….
Relational frames are not mental
representations that cause behavior.
They are behavior
(albeit complex patterns).
Effects of language on behavior
Once we have developed the capacity for relational framing,
our behavior is no longer strictly tied to direct contingencies
(of reinforcement and punishment).
Instead, our behavior can be influenced by verbal behavior,
which often describes contingencies.
Example:
A child might learn to never stick her finger in an electrical
outlet by direct contingencies: she sticks her finger in a socket,
with a predictable result.
But a child who has language can be told, “Don’t stick your
finger in a socket; it will hurt you badly.”
She might never engage in the behavior.
The words have taken over the stimulus functions of the direct
experience of punishment.
Rule-governed behavior
Skinner called our ability to respond to language rather than
direct contingencies as rule-governed behavior.
Often “rules” describe likely outcomes of behaviors:
“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
“Don’t get in a car with a stranger; they might hurt you.”
We learn to follow rules (obey words) because often when
we don’t, we are punished. And often when we do, we get
reinforced. So there is a connection between language influenced
behavior and direct experience at some point.
We would stop following rules if they were usually wrong.
If everyone said, “Stick your finger in a socket; it feels so great,” you
would stop responding to rules rather quickly.
Obeying language is often adaptive, but can become a
problem.
