Healy, O., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Smeets, P. M. (2000).
Derived relational responding as generalized operant behavior.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
74, 207-227.
The major aim of the present study was to demonstrate that
derived relational responding may be viewed as a form of
generalized operant behavior. In Experiment 1, 4 subjects
were divided into two conditions (2 in each condition). Using a
two- comparison matching-to-sample procedure, all subjects were
trained and tested for the formation of two combinatorially
entailed relations. Subjects were trained and tested across
multiple stimulus sets. Each set was composed of novel stimuli.
Both Conditions 1 and 2 involved explicit performance-contingent
feedback presented at the end of each block of test trials (i.e.,
delayed feedback). In Condition 1, feedback was accurate
(consistent with the experimenter-designated relations) following
exposure to the initial stimulus sets. When subjects' responding
reached a predefined mastery criterion, the feedback then
switched to inaccurate (not consistent with the
experimenter-designated relations) until responding once again
reached a predefined criterion. Condition 2 was similar to
Condition 1, except that exposure to the initial stimulus sets
was followed by inaccurate feedback and once the criterion was
reached feedback switched to accurate. Once relational responding
emerged and stabilized, response patterns on novel
stimulus sets were controlled by the feedback delivered for
previous stimulus sets. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1,
except that during Conditions 3 and 4 four comparison stimuli
were employed during training and testing. Experiment 3 was
similar to Condition 1 of Experiment 1, except that after the
mastery criterion was reached for class-consistent responding,
feedback alternated from accurate to inaccurate across each
successive stimulus set. Experiment 4 involved two types of
feedback, one type following tests for mutual entailment and the
other type following tests for combinatorial entailment. Results
from this experiment demonstrated that mutual and combinatorial
entailment may be controlled independently by accurate and
inaccurate feedback. Overall, the data support the suggestion,
made by relational frame theory, that derived relational
responding is a form of generalized operant behavior.
Key words: generalized operant class, relational frame theory,
mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment, equivalence
relation, matching to sample, humans