Naming, Stimulus Equivalence and Relational Frame Theory: Stronger Together than Apart

Author(s)

Regaco, Alceu ; Harte, Colin ; Barnes-Holmes, Dermot ; Leslie, Julian ; de Rose, Julio C.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: PERSPECTIVES ON BEHAVIOR SCIENCE; v. N/A, p. 18-pg., 2025-01-09.

Abstract

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 accounts: stimulus equivalence (SE), relational frame theory (RFT), and naming theory (NT). These accounts unfolded in the last decades of the twentieth century, promoting intense debate and discussion within behavior analysis. Although experimental research emerging from these three accounts is still highly active today, the theoretical discussions have, to a large extent, faded. Considering the importance of rekindling a dialogue, this article aims to describe the differences among the three accounts, but focus on their common points. We conclude by arguing that developing a more complete behavior-analytic account of human language would be served best by considering both research and theoretical analyses of SE, RFT and NT. Finally, we provide examples of two successful research groups that adopted this approach and in doing so have advanced our understanding of language within behavior analysis. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 21/09616-0 - Gamification applied to the Matching-to-Sample procedure
• Grantee: Alceu Regaço dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 14/50909-8 - INCT 2014: Behavior, Cognition and Teaching (INCT-ECCE): relational learning and symbolic functioning
• Grantee: Deisy das Graças de Souza
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 23/09493-1 - Applying updates in RFT to the experimental analysis of analogy and its potential implications for process-based analyses of human psychological suffering
• Grantee: Colin Harte
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• FAPESP's process: 19/24210-0 - Toward an RFT-based basic behavioral process analysis of fusion and defusion at the single-participant level.
• Grantee: Colin Harte
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 23/09657-4 - Effects of coherence on rule following by different speakers: a gamified study
• Grantee: Alceu Regaço dos Santos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate