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Facilitating Responding in Accordance with the Relational Frame of Comparison: Systematic Empirical Analyses

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Abstract

The current article examines patterns of adult responding to different types of more-than and less-than relations, as well as procedures for facilitating responding in accordance with these relations. Using parameters suggested in the three-term series literature, the more-than and less-than relations were separated into six distinct trial types. Systematic comparisons were then drawn between repeated test exposures, the provision of automated feedback, and the presentation of nonarbitrary trials. the results showed that feedback was the most effective intervention for facilitating responding to the target relations. When feedback and nonarbitrary trials were combined, their impact was only marginally better than either intervention alone. These findings are discussed in terms of relational frame theory and interventions for remediating deficits in derived relational responding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland

    Agata Vitale

  2. Department of Psychology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland

    Yvonne Barnes-Holmes, Dermot Barnes-Holmes & Claire Campbell

Authors
  1. Agata Vitale
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  2. Yvonne Barnes-Holmes
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  3. Dermot Barnes-Holmes
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  4. Claire Campbell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yvonne Barnes-Holmes.

Additional information

The current work was conducted as part of the doctoral research program undertaken by the first author at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. This research was funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Vitale, A., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D. et al. Facilitating Responding in Accordance with the Relational Frame of Comparison: Systematic Empirical Analyses. Psychol Rec 58, 365–390 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03395624

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