Palmer, D. C. (2004).
Data in search of a principle: A review of Relational frame theory:
A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition.
Journal of Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
81, 189-204.
Responding to derived relations among stimuli and events is the subject of an
accelerating research program that represents one of the major behavior analytic
approaches to complex behavior. Relational Frame Theory: A Post-Skinnerian
Account of Human Language and Cognition (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001)
offers a conceptual framework for this work and explores its implications for
verbal behavior and a variety of other domains of complex human behavior. The
authors dismiss Skinner's interpretation of verbal behavior as unproductive and
conceptually flawed and suggest a new definition and a new paradigm for the
investigation of verbal phenomena. I found the empirical phenomena important
but the conceptual discussion incomplete. A new principle of behavior is
promised, but critical features of this principle are not offered. In the
absence of an explicit principle, the theory itself is difficult to evaluate.
Counterexamples suggest a role for mediating behavior, perhaps covert, thus
raising the question whether a new principle is needed at all. The performance
of subjects in relational frame experiments may be a mosaic of elementary
behavioral units, some of which are verbal. If so, verbal behavior underlies
relational behavior; it is not defined by it. I defend Skinner's definition of
verbal behavior and argue that an account of relational behavior must be
integrated with Skinner's analysis; it will not replace it.
Key words: equivalence classes, definition of verbal behavior, private
events, relational frame theory, relational frames, verbal behavior