Learning and Behavior Therapy Cap 18 - 19

8/12/2019 Learning and Behavior Therapy Cap 18 - 19

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Edited by

William O'Donohue

University of Nevada, Reno

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R E L A T E D T I T L E S

O F I N T E R E S T

E H A V I O R T H E R A P Y

LEARNING AND

Handbook of Behavior Therapy with Children and Adults: A

Developmental and Longitudinal Perspective

Robert T. Ammerman and Michel Hersen (Editors)

ISBN: 0-205-14583-3

Cognitive and Behavioral Interventions: An Empirical Approach

to Mental Health Problems

Linda W. Craighead, W. Edward Craighead, Alan E. Kazdin, and Michael J. Mahoney

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Treatment Resistance: A Guide for Practitioners

S alvatore Cullari

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Helping People Change: A Textbook of Methods, Fourth Edition

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Handbook of Psychological Skills Training: Clinical Techniques and Applications

William O'Donohue and Leonard Krasner (Editors)

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Behavior Therapy: Concepts, Procedures, and Applications, Second Edition

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The Practice of Behavior Therapy: Fourth Edition

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3/17

ULE GOVERNED BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER 18

THE A PPLIED 1MPLICATIONS

OF RULE GOVERNED BEHAVIOR

Steven C. Hayes

Winifred Ju

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treadingtreadingtill it seemed

That Sense was breaking through-

As al the Heavens were a Bel ,

And Being, but an Ear,

And 1 and Silence some strange Race

Wreaked, solitary, here-

And 1 heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

The Spacebegan to toll,

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum-

Kept beatingbeatingtill I thought

My Mind was going numb-

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down-

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowingthen-

-Emily Dickinson

8 -1886

Verbal behavior is a dominant aspect of human

l i fe . Humans talk to each other and to them-

selves, they talk both in the presence of and in the

absence of an a udience, and they talk both

overtly and covertly. Education, religion, gov-

ernment, and psychotherap y all largely involve

people' s altering the behavior of people through

language.

People learn both by contacting events first

hand and by being told about these events. They

change their behavior in the presence of both

nonverbal and verbal stimuli. In behavioral terms,

we can say that actions can be both contingency-

shaped and tale-govemed (Skinner, 1969).

Behavior analysts have discovered a number of

properties of antecedent verbal stimuli or

"rules," that have important imp lications for clin-

icians with respect to the therapeutic strategies

they utilize. These findings suggest that rule-gov-

ernance is not an innocuous procedure that it

has notable properties that indicate times when

verbal stimuli should and should not be u sed to

guide clinically significant behavior change.

T H E B E H A V I O R A N A L Y T I C

L I T E R A T U R E O N R U L E S : A B R I E F

R E V I E W O F E M P I R I C A L

FINDINGS

Two m ain strategies have been used to assess

the relative contributions of verbal stimuli and

programmed contingencies to the m odification

of behavior. The first approach has been to ob-

serve the impact of rules on b ehavior patterns in

single schedules of reinforcement (Buskist, Ben-

nett, & Miller, 1981; Buskist & Miller, 1986;

Kaufman et al. , 1966).

Schedules Are in Part What You

Say They Are

Behavior under sched ule cont rol i s of ten

highly predictable; therefore, alternations from

typical patterns can be traced to the effects of ver-

bal stimuli. This strategy was particularly popular

in the early behavior analysis work on rules. The

fixed interval (FI) schedule was frequently used

because it is a well-established

human FI performance often dif

from responding on an FI by

(e.g., Leander, Lippman, & Me

man & Meyer, 1967; Weiner, 1

Nonhumans tend to show "br

scalloped patterns when expose

ule, while adult humans tend to

s teady rates or very low rate

Human infants initially show no

formances (Lowe, Beasty, &

then, as they grow older, there

sition to adult performances fro

age 2 to age 7 (Bentall, Lowe,

In adults, response patterns m

nonhumans are produced on an

taken to reduce counting, such

current mental math or reading a

& Weiss, 1963; Lowe, Harzem,

or us ing a response-produce

Harzem, & Bagshaw, 1978; L

Hughes, 1978).

The basic conclusion derived

research is that humans tend t

rules regarding schedules of re

these rules, ultimately, have a

For example, adult humans ten

steady rates on an FI when they

that specifies

rate as the relevan

just need to keep responding a

will work"); and they show ver

sponding with one or two respo

the interval when time

is formu

vant variable ("This works eve

Speaking simply, responding to

inforcement can be in part rule

Rule-Induced Insensitivit

In the second approach, tale

ior is exposed to changes in pro

gencies of reinforcement , su

multiple schedules (Baron, Kau

1969; Hayes, Brownstein, Zett

Korn, 1986b), or unannounced

tion (Hayes, Brownstein, Haa


4/17

rtuL-ukvt NU

1986a; Shimoff, Catania, & Matthews, 1981). In

this case, the relative sensitivity to changes in

programmed co ntingencies is what is at issue.

It turns out that when behavior is controlled by

verbal rules, it tends to be relatively insensitive to

changes in contingencies that are not contacted

by the rule itself, in comparison with behavior

that is directly shaped or established by m inimal

instructions (Hayes et al. , 1986; M atthews, Shi-

moff, Catania, & Sagvolden, 1977; Shimoff et

al., 1981; see Catania, Shimoff, & Matthews,

1989, and Haye s, Zettle, & Rosenfarb, 1989 for

recent reviews). Instructed subjects (e.g., sub-

jects who were told how to respond to maximize

reinforcement) show less behavior change than

uninstructed subjects in response to sev eral dif-

ferent types of schedule changes: (a) changes

that resu lt in no potential increase in conse-

quence del ivery (Shimoff et al . , W81), (b)

changes that result in a great poten tial increase in

consequences (Shimoff et al. , 1981), (c) changes

that allow for a substantial decrease in respond-

ing with no change in the rate of consequence de-

l ivery (Galizio, 1979) , and (d) change s that

totally remove all prograrnmed consequences

(Hayes et al. , 1986; M atthews et al. , 1977).

This so-called

insensitivity

effect has excited

clinical behavior analysts in part because many

forms of clinically significant behavior seem to

exemplify the same ov erall pattem: the persis-

tence of p articular patterns of responding persist

despite heir directly experienced or potential

negative consequences. Others have argued that

these findings have implications for treatment as

well, since many popu lar forms of clinical in-

te rvent ion re ly heavi ly on rules and thus may

inadveriatly be establishing therapeutically un-

desirable forms of insensitivity (e.g., Azrin &

Hayes, 1984).

Altering the Range of Behavior

Rule-governed behavior has other attributes as

well. Rules can readily alter the range and topog-

raphy of behavior that is available to contact nat-

ural consequences . This proper ty means that

some rules can

increasecontact with natural con-

tingencies, while other rules

decrease such con-

tact. This was first shown by Hayes et al. (1986).

Button-presses moved a light through a matrix

according to a multiple fixed-ratio (FR = 1 8)/

differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate (DRL 6-

seconds) schedule, with com ponents alternating

every 2 minutes. Points worth chances on money

prizes were awarded for successfully moving the

light through the matrix. Subjects w ere told to

"Go fas t" when one l ight was on and to "Go

slow" when a different light was on. The presen-

tation of instruction lights was varied within three

conditions. In one condition only the Go Fast

light was on, in a second only the Go Slow light

was on, and in a third the lights altemated each

minute (twice as fast as the alternating of sched-

ules). This manipulation ensured that some sub-

jects had a full range of behavior available to

contact these two rate-relevant contingencies,

while the others had a narrow range o f behavior

available. In all cases the instruction light within

each condition was only accurate half the time,

but out of those su bjects with instructions that

produced a narrow range of behavior, only one of

the two schedules w as likely to lead to points.

After some time being exposed to these condi-

tions, half the subjects had all instruction lights

turned off. In general, subjects followed the rules

whenever the instruction lights were on. This

meant, for example, that subjects shown only the

Go Slow light received points on the DRL 6, bu t

not the FR 18. The opposite was true for the Go

Fast subjects. But when the instruction lights

were tumed off, subjects given narrow ranges of

behavior continued to show control only by one

schedule, while subjects who were presented with

the al ternating G o FastGo Slow ins truction

lights immediately showed schedule-appropriate

behavior in both components. Subjects in the lat-

ter condition displayed a w ide range of behavior

that had contacted the contingencieswhen the

instructions were removed, they "knew what to

do."

Several other researchers have shown similar

findings (Joyce & Chase, 1990). T he relevance

of added contingencies for rule-following in de-

termining the effects of explicitly programmed

consequences modified considerably the mean-

ing of rule-induced insensitivity. It is not literally

that rules are insensitive to contingencies; rather,

rules alter how programmed contingencies are

contacted. They also add important new contin-

gencies, a fact seen in the next section.

Increased Social Control

Rules greatly amplify social regulatory proc-

esses in two ways. First, rules can be stored in the

forro of permanent produ cts available to influ-

ence the behavior of others removed by time or

space from the speaker. For exam ple, the reader

of this book is responding to ink on paper given

a long social and educational history that estab-

lishes such control. But the writer is not sitting

next to the reader. The writer may now be insane,

dead, or in another profession. This property of

human verbal behavior enormously amplifies the

importance, pervasiveness, and indirect relevance

of the social community in human affairs. Sec-

ond, the social community can often discriminate

whether or not a rule has been followed and can

deliver socially mediated consequen ces accord-

ingly. In other words, rule-following can be en -

tirely conventional. Much more will be said about

this quality later.

Altered Motivation

Verbal stimuli do not just d irect the form of

behavior. They can also lead to the initial estab-

lishment of consequences (H ayes et al., 1987;

Hayes , Kohlenberg, & Hayes , 1991; Hayes ,

Brownstein, Devany, Kohlenberg, & Shelby,

1987). Suppose, for example, you are told for

the first time that

bon

in French is the same as

bueno

in Spanish, and that

bueno

in Spanish is

the same as

bra

in Swedish, and that

bra

in

Swedish is the same as

good

in English. If

good

already functions as a reinforcer, this rule alone

may make it possible to teach new skills by con-

sequating effective per formances with

bon,

bueno,

or

bra.

In addition, rules can change the

effectiveness of existing

& Ju , in press) . In the p

Finger-lickin' good,

for

ness of fried chicken as a

ing may be greater than

words.

Together, these proce

creation of highly abstra

tially, generalized socia

good)

may be establishe

processes (e.g., pairing w

but

good

is in tum modi

verbal relations. There ar

ditions for particular goo

said to be good, and so o

bal concepts such as just

sincerity can be used as c

so just") as a result. We w

cal account of such effect

lndirect Alteration of

the Nonverbal Enviro

Probably one of the m o

rules is that they can alte

nonverbal environment. If

enters into a verbal relatio

to the verbal term will, u

condition, transfer to the

(Hayes & H ayes, 1992). L

that a child is taught that t

goes with the sound "dog

that the pr inted word

D

dogs . The two directly t

DOG to

actual dogs and

"dog." Let us, then, say th

sion, the child plays with an

ten. Through classical con

may thus come to elicit pa

of anxiety, and feelings of

occasion, upon hear ing t

child may suddenly start

avoidance responses even t

ally present and the child h

tory of reinforcement for a

in response to the sound "d


5/17

378

EARNING AND BEHAVIOR THERAPY

RULE-GOVERNED BEHAVIOR

process that verbal ru les give the nonverbal

world new meaning (cf. Schlinger & Blakely,

1994, 1987).

Summary

Rules are powerful events. They permit a re-

markably indirect, conventional, and specific

form of stimulus control. Rules allow the estab-

lishment of remote social contingencies and a

rapid modification of the range of b ehaviors

available to make contact w ith the environment.

But rules are not all positive. They can produce

rigidity. They can make other imp ortant sources

of control over behavior ineffective.

Due to the decreased ability to manipulate the

environment directly, many outpatient therapeu-

tic interventions are based heavily on verbal ex-

changes as a form of intervention. Much of

clinical psychology works by the establishmen t

of verbal rules. Understanding Pule-governance

is thus a m atter of critical importance to empiri-

cal clinical psychology and its developm ent.

T Y P E S O F R U L E

O L L O W I N G

Rules are verbal antecedents. We take "ver-

bal" stimuli to be stimu li that have their effects

because they participate in equivalence classes

(see Tierney & Bracken, this volume) or other

der ived s t imulus relat ions (Hayes & H ayes ,

1989). A full account of this definition is beyond

the scope of the present chapter (see Hayes &

Hayes, 1992); however, for all practical purposes,

a detailed account of this kind is not necessary. A

common-sense definition will work almost as

well.

Understanding a rule and actually following

the rule are two different behaviors, however

(Hayes, 1991; Hayes, Z et t le, & R osenfarb,

1989), and for clinical purposes it is important to

see why rules are followed in the first place.

Most rules seem to evoke rule-following be-

cause they engage direct contingencies.

Pliance,

or rule-govemed behavior under the control of a

history of socially mediated consequences for a

correspondence between the rule and relevant

behavior, is one type. Another type of rule-fol-

lowing is

tracking,

or rule-governed behavior

under the control of a history of a correspon-

dence between the rule and the contingencies en-

gaged entirely by the exact form of the behavior

in that particular situationwhat we call "nat-

ural" contingencies (Hayes & Wilson, 1993;

Hayes, Zettle, & Rosenfarb, 1989). When be-

havior is under the co ntrol of natural contingen-

cies (i.e., contingency-shaped), the consequences

of an action are determined completely by the

topography of the action in a given s i tuation

(Hayes, Zettle, & Rosenfarb, 1989). In this case,

the consequences that are contacted have nothing

to do w ith whether a person acted "maliciously,"

"intentionally," or "unknow ingly." For example,

if a Shao-Lin priest brands himself with a hot

iron, the burra he receives is still a burn whether

he accidentally touched the branding iron or did

so voluntarily. Conversely, branding himself "by

not watching where he was going" versus " to

demonstrate the intensity of his faith" will have

different socially mediated co nsequences. With

behavior that is contingency-shaped, the likeli-

hood of touching a hot iron should, eventually,

decrease. The red glow should function as a dis-

criminative stimulus (Skinner, 1938) in the pres-

ence of which touching is punished or avoidance

is reinforced. However, if the branding iron were

being used as part of an elaborate ritual, avoid-

ance would likely produce aversive socially me-

diated consequences , such as cas tigation by

fellow believers.

To illustrate the distinction further, suppose

an adult tells a child, "Dress warmly, dear, it 's

cold outside." If the child then pu ts on a jacket

because of a history of possible praise or pun -

ishment from the adult for following the rule,

then the behavior is pliance. Conversely, if the

child puts on a jacket to get warm, under the con-

trol of a history of such tules accurately describ-

ing natural contingencies, then the behavior is

tracking.

The distinction between plies and tracks is

functional, not formal. A rule can be in ob vipus

track form and still evoke pliance. Similarly, be-

havior that is rebellious or resistant ma y still be

pliance, so long as the function of the rule is de-

pendent upon a history of socially mediated con-

sequences for a correspondence between the rule

and relevant behavior. A teenage girl accurately

told, "Your friends will get you in trouble," may

respond by angrily trying to keep her parents

from controlling what she does. In this instance,

the rule is probably functioning as a ply as if

consequences for following or not following the

rule are arbitrary and social rather than as a

description of natural consequences. The resis-

tance shown by the teenager (i.e., counterpli-

ance) has probably been consequated, in part, by

the social w ithdrawal of the parent or other rule-

giver.

Augmenting is

a different kind of rule, in which

the antecedent verbal stimuli do not indcate or

change contingenciesrather, they change the

effectiveness or importance of consequences.

Say, for example, that a person who often drinks

Gatorade hears a radio advertisement announc-

ing: "Gatorade The thirst quencher " This state-

ment is unlikely to function as a ply since the

social commu nity is not likely to discriminate

whether or not the rule had been given and, then,

differentially reinforce the purchase o f Gatorade

accordingly. It may func tion as a track in that

drinking Gatorade may actually decrease thirst.

However, it does not signal a contingency since

the commercial may be heard during times of

thirst as well as satiation. In other words, the

probability of natural reinforcement is no higher

in the presence of the rule than in its absence. In-

stead, what may be involved is the verbal equiv-

alent of reinforcer sampling (cf. Allyon & Azrin,

1968): as we talk about Gatorade we may also be

able to picture it and taste it (i.e., some of the per-

ceptual functions associated with the drink may

be present). In technical terms, the stimulus func-

t ions of one member of an equivalence class

transfer to another member. This transfer, in turn,

may function motivationally (see Hayes & Ju, in

press).

Two different types of augmentals have been

distinguished in the b ehavior analytic literature.

When a rule establishes consequential funetions

for the first time through a verbal rule, it is a for-

mative augmental. This p

empirically in several stud

1987; Hayes, Kohlenberg

The te= motivative au

tecedent verbal stimuli tha

degree to which previous

quences function as reinfo

Gatorade example is of th

Many of the consequen

humans are remo te, impro

verbal processes involve

help explain how such con

important. Formative augm

es tablishment of such ab

quences as liberty, justic

motivative augmentals m

tance of achievement, re

and other consequences s

lizo:1 society.

E V I D E N C E F O R T

T R A C K I N G D I

The research on augm e

but there is a substantial li

pliance-tracking distinctio

portant for our purposes b

erature on rule-governan

interventions.

Tracking can be social s

tingencies are social bu

social and in an unusu al

community can different

force control by a rule as d

consequences based on th

seen. Because of this inhe

monitored correspondenc

the social community ha

rule and to the relevant b

the rule. If either is certa

by "certainly" we mean a

follower then pliance sh

This distinction sugges

assessing whether an insta

is pliance or tracking: com

a public context, in which

relevant behavior are acce


6/17

380


RULE

OVERNED BEHAVIOR

diators , with that seen in a pr ivate context in

which either the rule and/or the relevant behav-

ior are apparently not at all accessible. Such pub-

lic/private comparisons have been made in the

social psychology literature on compliance, obe-

dience, and related social influence processes

(see Hayes et al., 1989 for a review), and in the

human operant literature as well (e.g., Barrett,

Dei tz , Gaydos, & Qu inn, 1987). But the re le -

vante of this to applied work is most direct in a

research literature on the processes through with

such clinical interventions as coping self-state-

ments or self-control procedures operate.

Almost all psychotherapies are conducted in a

social context. Clients are presented w ith verbal

mater ial by the therapis t , and cor responding

client behavior is examined. These conditions

satisfy the core requirements for a pliance con-

tingency. To what degree can clinical changes

seen in psychotherapeutic interventions be said

to be due to pliance? This question has been ex-

amined with som e widely used interventions.

In an initial study in this area, Zettle and

Hayes (1983) com pared the efficacy of coping

self-statements in the reduction of speech anxi-

ety. Speech-anxious college students were ran-

domly assigned to a control group, or to one of

two kinds of coping self-statement interventions.

Both of the coping conditions received a s elf-

statement like those commonly used clinically.

Subjects selected a statement from a container

that they were told he ld different types of state-

ments. They were asked to repeat this statement

to themselves both before and during speeches.

In actuality, all the statements in the container

were identical. The difference between the two

coping conditions was that in the private version,

subjects simply returned the statement to the

container after reading it, while in the public

condit ion, the s tatement was shared with the

therapist.

Results obtained on both self-report and be-

havioral measures of anxiety showed that the

publ ic coping se lf-sta tement group improved

per formance over the control condit ion. The

private group did not. Thus, coping "self-state-

ments" may work through social means. In this

study at least, coping self-statements established

pliance, not tracking. Speaking loosely, clients

improved because they knew that the therapist

knew they were supp osed to follow a particular

rule.

Coping statements were examined in a second

study focusing on pain tolerance using a cold-

pressor task (Hayes & Wolf, 1984). A very sim-

ilar design to the earlier study was used. O nce

again, only subjects in the pub lic coping self-

statement group improved their tolerance of a

cold-pressor task longer than those in an atten-

tion-placebo condition. Private self-statements

had no effect.

Rosenfarb and Hayes (1984) examined this

issue using children and expanded the finding to

disinhibitory modeling. Children who were very

fearful of the dark were randomly assigned to

one of two treatment conditions (coping self-

statement or disinhibitory modeling) or to one

of two control groups (one controlling for time

and the other controlling for the content of the

coping statements by using neutral statements

from children's books). Children in the coping

self-statement group listened to a tape (they were

told it was a "radio show") in wh ich they were

instructed in self-statements that previous re-

search had shown to be q u ite effective in de-

creasing fear of the dark in children (Kanfer,

Karoly, & Newm an, 1975). The children picked

the i r own " r ad io s how" by pu nch ing one o f

many bu ttons on a panel. In actuality, regardless

of the button pushed, the same tape was played.

The public/private manipulation was as follows:

half of the subjects (in the "pub lic" condition)

showed the experimenter the button they wou ld

push, the other half did not (in the "private con-

dition"). The experimenter then left the room,

the child pushed the button, and the "radio show"

was played. The disinhibitory modeling con-

di t ions had the ident ical publ ic and pr ivate

manipulations, except that subjects watched a

videotape of a same-gender coping mo del enter-

ing a dark room while saying aloud the same

self-statements used in the self-statement groups.

Coping self-statements and modeling both in-

creased dark tolerance equally well in these fear-

ful children compared with the control condi-

tions, but this was true only

when the treatments

were public. If the children thought that no one

not even the experimentercould know what

they listened to or watched, the treatment effects

disappeared entirely. This was true even though

the pr ivate groups remembered and reponed

using the interventions just as well as the pub lic

groups. These findings sho w fairly clearly that

these interventions work by setting a kind of so-

cial standard against which performance can be

subsequently evaluated. Put another way: these

interventions work by pliance, not tracking; they

work by social persuasion, not by information.

The same type of results have been show n with

self-control procedures and with goal-setting

(Hayes , Rosenfarb, Wulfer t , Munt, Korn, &

Zettle, 1985).

These results are important because practition-

ers of many forms of cognitive and behavioral

therapy talk about their procedures in largely

nonsocial terms. Cognitive therapists talk more

about what the client thinks than about what the

therapist apparently could think about what the

client thinks. As a result, little careful thought has

been given to ways in which pliance might be in-

creased in cognitive therapy.

IMPLICATIONS OF RULE

GOVERNANCE F OR APPLIED

PROBLEMS

The literature on rule-govemance suggests

many ways that applied problems can emerge

and be treated. It suggests new approaches, pro-

vides theoretical concepts for the interpretation

of existing approaches, and presents new areas of

caution.

Clinical Problems in Rule-

Governed Terms

In some cases, increasing rule control of cer-

tain kinds may be helpful, such as when rule gen-

eration and following are too weak. Behavior

occurring under such conditions may be label d

as impulsive, lazy, antisocial, or immoral. les

introduce new forms of s

allow greater resistance to

term immediate consequen

function as both speaker an

son can listen to his or h er

rules can p ar t icipate in t

behavior. The difference be

rules and rules made by ot

when a p erson is l istenin

speech, the social continge

ance do not operate in the s

the person is listening to s

cially mediated consequen

not following a self-rule a

on derived stimulus relati

rule may occur at a very s

"natural" consequences ma

contiguous (i.e. , delayed).

Disorders in rule genera

occur in several ways: in

formulate rules in situatio

do so; they may formulate

or ineffective rules; they m

that lead to beneficial outco

low ru les that lead to ha

(Hayes, Kohlenberg, & M

of the strategies incorporat

apy can be interpreted as a

viduals proper rule-form

Poppen, 1983; Zettle & H a

encourage their clients to

under the control of direc

enced events (i.e., natural

than under states of reinfor

and fears) or audience cont

ers). The formulation of in

rules can also occur at th

commu nity at large. For

commercial promoting th

be too rich or too thin" is

lowing that could aversely

health and well-being. In f

cater to the effects of im

control (e.g., feeling elat

etc.). But for these comm

pact, audiences must be ab

and follow the rules to wh


7/17

382


RULE GOVERNED BEHAVIOR

w

Rule-following, in this sense, involves both the

understanding of the rule and the verbal activa-

tion of behavioral functions in terms of the rule

(Hayes et al., 1989). Most adolescents already

know who Joe Cam el is and what product he

promotes. To encourage the purchase of Camel

cigarettes, advertisers need only establish the

product name as an effective reinforcer; thus,

Carnel cigarettes become related to

cool

in much

the same manner that bon

becomes related to

good.

Once Cam el cigarettes are functioning as

formative augmentals, the immediate social con-

tingencies and the immediate effects of the nico-

tine itself may draw the teenage r into a pattern of

smoking. Recent comm unity intervention pro-

jects (Biglan, 1995) have focused on promoting

rule-following that might compete effectively

with the destructive effects of diese kinds of im-

mediate contingency control. The rule "Don't

smoke smoking is for losers" is meant to es-

tablish an insensitivity to these direct contingen-

cies. However, before such rules will have an

impact, a sufficiently strong p attern of rule-fol-

lowing mu st first be established. Synanon, for

example, is an invasive drug-treatment program

that emphasizes intense social con trol for the

purposes of establishing pliance with regard to

house rules. Strong and consistent social contin-

gencies are provided for rule-following in the

hopes that a greater degree of insensitivity to de-

structive immediate contingencies w ill result.

At the other end of the continuum, when rule-

generation and rule-following are too strong, be-

havior may be described as obsessive, anxious,

overcompliant, insensit ive or r igid. In these

cases, targeting proper rule formu lation or in-

creasing insensitivity to direct contingencies

may actually compound the problem. Instead,

avoiding or decreasing rule control of certain

kinds may be more he lpful . Individua ls d iag-

nosed with obsessive-compulsive behavior dis-

order for example may not benefit from

directive interventions, such as rational emotive

therapy (Ellis, 1962). The replacement of the

client' s rules with the therapist's rules does not

attenuate excessive rule-following. Conversely,

the more traditionally nonempirical approaches,

such as Gestalt (Perls, 1969) and Morita (Morita,

1929/1984), may be more consistent with the

basic behavioral literature on rule-governance.

These historically "non-behavioral" therapies

emphasize the experiential aspects of learning

by minimizing direct therapist instruction, by in-

creasing the use of nonvocal experiential exer-

cises by maldng use of metaphor and by

applying paradoxical techniques with the pur-

pose of climinishing the insensitivity-producing

effects of verbal control (Hayes, Kohlenberg, &

Melancon, 1989).

Because rule-govem ance i s so cent ral to

human action, an almost unlimited number of

applied implications could be developed. In

many ways, the field of applied psychology is

about the issue of rule-govemance. We will limit

our examples to a small set.

Developing Rule Control: The

Example of Moral Behavior

The distinction between pliance, tracking, and

augmenting provides a working model of moral

development (Hayes, Gifford, & Hayes, in

press). Six basic kinds of moral behavior emerge

from the pliance/tracking/augmenting distinc-

tion. Those from the point of view of the listener

are moral pliance, moral tracking, and moral

augmenting. Those from the point of the view of

the speaker are social concem for pliance, social

concern for tracking, and social concern for aug-

menting. These can be arranged into a usual se-

quence based on their complexity.

Moral pliance involves following rules about

what is good or proper because the verbal com-

munity differentially consequates rule-following

per se. Moral pliance involves the implicit (and

often explicit) rule "Do it because I said so." It

makes sense that pliance is most basic because it

adds new reinforcers and punishers to those con-

tingencies already present, and because it is in

the direct interest of speakers. A parent shouting

"stop it " will have that behavior negatively re-

inforced by termination of crying, and the chil-

dren will often be presented w ith direct and

immediate reasons to stop.

Moral tracking

involves following rules about

what best produces existing reinforcers and pun-

ishers for the individual. An example of a moral

track might be "People won't like you if you lie."

This type of rule-following is more complex than

pliance. The consequences retened to in the rule

are often probabilistic or remote, and the track

does not add new, immediate consequ ences to

the situation.

Moral augmenting

involves the acquisition of

and motivation to obtain increasingly abstract

reinforcers and punishers, based on systems of

verbal relations. Formative augmentals are the

more important kind in the area of morality, be-

cause they establish new consequential functions

through verbal means. This form of behavior is

more difficult than the others because it is such a

verbal process.

Social concern for pliance

is moral behavior

oriented toward the establishment of pliance in

others or in the social group as a whole. It is in-

volved with such issues as "How can we estab-

lish law and order?" or "How I get my children

to mind me?" a con cern over pliance, while

much more evolved and complex than pliance

from the point of view of the listener, is still a

rather basic behavior, since pliance can remove

very direct and aversive events from the imme-

diate environment of the speaker.

Social concern for tracking

is moral behavior

oriented toward the establishment of tracking in

others or in the social group as a whole. It is con-

cerned with such issues as "How can we elim-

nate self-destructive behavior in our youth?" or

"How can w e get people to think in terms of the

long-term consequences?" This is the first type

of moral behavior that is quite subtle and difficult

to achieve because the reinforcers for the

speaker are long term and indirect.

Social concern for augmenting is moral be-

havior oriented toward the establishment of ver-

bal consequences in others or in the social group

as a whole and increasing the motivation of oth-

ers to work toward abstract consequences. It is

concerned with such issues as "How can we es-

tablish a society that seeks justice?" This is the

most difficult kind of morality to establish since

self-interest for the speake

volved.

This approach to m ora

parenting practices that gi

clear rules, careful monito

quation of behavior) are so

It also explains why helpi

contact with natural conse

and why abstract ends tau

gion or ethics are crucial

Avoiding Rule Contro

Example of Social Sha

If one of the side effects

insensitivity to direct con

rule-based therapies sho

when behav ioral rigidity

problems such as smokin

pulsive behavior, aggres

such r ig idi ty might be

"spontaneous" or "sociall

the research on rule-gover

struction-based intervent

be as effective as experien

Social-skills training pr

of the ineffectiveness of

models. Proponents of thi

the assumption that socia

have specific deficits in pa

can be identified and des

cient that the therapist w

behavior change and prov

gree to which role-played

imate the instructed idea

1986). This model has bee

by dozens, even hundreds,

there is still no useful list

nente of "social skill" (C

Adams, 1977; Conger &

farb, Hayes, & Linehan, 1

Social behavior involv

specific and subtle respo

press ions , ges tures, voi

ments, and so on) that are

of such factors as the aud

and so on. So cial interac


8/17


9/17


10/17

RULE-GOVERNED BEHAVIOR

88


.1M

bal style in therapy that emphasizes the nature of

verbal processes (e.g., saying, "I' m hav ing the

thought that I can't go to the mali" as opposed to

simply stating, "I can't go to the mall").

Emotional-exposure exercises further weaken

rules about the necessity of emotional and cog-

nitive control. Imaginal and in vivo exercises are

used to elicit some of what the client most fears,

and the reactions that then occur are contacted in

deconstructed form.

In the final stages of ACT, clients work on

their values and commitment action linked to

those values. In essence, having weakened so-

cially conventional forms of rule-control that are

oriented toward private events, ACT seeks to

support verbal control targeted toward valued

behavior change. Verbal commitments are made

and practiced. ACT tries to establish a discrimi-

nation between self-rules that canitot be followed

effectively (i.e., rules of emotional avoidance)

and self-rules that can be followed effectively

and, when followed, can lead to positive conse-

quences (e.g., commitments to behavior change).

Several clinical outcome studies have been

conducted on A CT, and the data are supportive

(see Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, in press, for a re-

view). Our interest in ACT in the c ontext of the

present chapter, however, is with the way ACT

seeks to alter rule control. ACT sugg ests that

more empirical therapies could be built around

attempts to undermine or transform rule control,

rather than simply to use it or to work aroun d it .

Application of Rules to

Psychopathology: The Example

of Suicide

Understanding how rules alter behavior can be

useful for an analysis of psychopathology as well

as treatment. Suicide will be our example, though

many others present themselves (e.g., see Hayes,

Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996).

The purposeful act of taking one' s own life is

an instance of rule-governed behavior based on

derived relations involving time (Hayes, 1994)

and the verbal construction of expected conse-

quences of action. Temp oral relations are a part

of a class of relations that have to do w ith change,

such as cause-effect, if . . . then, or before-after.

Based on a history of der ived temporal se-

quences among events, a person is able to re-

spond in the p resent by constructing a sequential

relation between at least two events. For exam-

ple, "death" can p articipate in if . . . then verbal

relations with many other events that have ac-

quired des irable functions both directly and

through the transformation of stimulus functions

tied to direct events, such as, "If I am dead, I

will no longer suffer, everyone will be happ ier,

they will all be sorry for what they' ve done to

me, I will finally be at peace," and so on.

In technical terms, "death" enters into forma-

tive and then motivative augmentals, such that it

becomes a verbal consequence of importance

(Hayes & W ilson, 1993). Thus, as a verbal ac-

tion, suicide is a kind of rule-govemed behavior.

Once personal death becomes a verbal conse-

quence of importance, rules can be followed that

give rise to it . The motivating conditions behind

more than half of actual or attempted suicides

involve an attempt to escape from aversive states

of mind such as guilt or anxiety (Baumeister,

1990; Smith & Bloom, 1985). However, the im-

pact of such ru les as "If I die, then I w ill be at

peace" depends upon the degree to which they

conflict with other functional rules, such as "Sui-

cide is an offense against God." It is for this rea-

son that the psychotherapies and rel ig ious

institutions around the world strive to create

meaning, values, and purpose in the lives of in-

dividuals.

This analysis makes sense of the great perva-

siveness of suicide in human civilization, espe-

cially when contrasted with the arguable absence

of this behavior in nonhum ans. By this analysis,

suicide is not the product of a diseased m ind; it is

an outgrowth of norm al verbal processes. Stated

another way, the issue shifts from why people

kill themselves to the more important question of

why they do not.

CONCLUSION

Humans live in a verbal world. AB attempts to

change human behavior have to address this sim-

ple fact in some ways. Thu s, the study of verbal

regulation bears u pon every applied technique in

psychology. In the present chapter we have

shown how verbal regulation bears on our clini-

cal understanding, and how m ethods can be used

to establish, avoid, transform, or underm ine dif-

ferent kinds of verbal control. By consciously

examining how techniques deal with issues of

verbal regulation, the rule-governed literature

might suggest m odifications or innovations for

many therapeutic procedures.

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STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE

A B R I E F A C C O U N T O F

S T I M U L U S E Q U I V A L E N C E

Over the past num ber of years, the analysis of

emergent behavior has generated a great deal of

experimental research. The bulk of this research

has been conducted using the matching-to-sam-

ple paradigm (Sidman, 1971). M atching-to-sam-

ple training is a form of training that is employ ed

to teach a series of conditional discriminations to

a participant.

In the simplest variant of the procedure, a per-

son is trained to match stimulus A with stimulus

B and then trained to match s t imulus B w ith

stimulus C. Given this, the person may show the

ability to produce several "matching responses"

that have not actually been trained. The person

may show reflexivity (ability to match A with A,

B with B, and C with C ), symmetry (ability to

match B to A

and C to B), and, m ost interest-

ingly, transitivity (matching A to C) (Hayes,

1989) . Where all these matching phenomena

occur, a stimulus equivalence class including A,

B, and C is said to have been formed because

each mem ber of the class is treated equivalently

(Sidman, 1971, 1986).

Much everyday learning presumably involves

the development and mod ification of stimulus

equivalence classes, and it has been suggested as

a paradigm for explaining the emergence of

comprehension and reading ski l ls (Sidman &

Cresson, 1973) and, more controversially, the

development of language itself (Devany, Hayes,

& Nelson, 1986 ). A striking feature of stimulus

equivalence classes is that as the numb er of

members (stimuli) in the class increases, the

number of m atching responses that emerge in-

creases dramatically. For example, training 2

relationships (A to B and B to C) produces a

three-member class (i.e., a class incorporating

the stimuli A, B, and C) w ith a further 7 match-

ing relationships emerging (A to A, B to 8, C to

C, B to A, C to B, A to C, C to A), a total of 3

2 = 7), but training 4 relationships (A to B, B to

C, C to D, D to E) produces a five-member class

(A, B, C, D, E) with a further 21 matching rela-

tionships emerging (5

4 = 21). Thus, training

two additional relationships produces 14 further

matching relationships. Natural stimulus equiva-

lence classes may have very many members w ith

a huge number of em erging matching relation-

ships.

P R O C E D U R A L I S S U E S

The conventional procedure for training stim-

ulus equivalence classes involves training several

(typically, three) A to B relationships concur-

rently using a matching-to-sample procedure. On

a trial either Al, A2, or A3 is presented as a sam-

ple, and then B1, B2, and A 3 are presented si-

multaneously. Feedback is presented on correct

choices (which will be B1 following A 1, B2 fol-

lowing A2, and B3 following B3). Once criterion

performance is reached on the matching-to-sam-

ple task, a second training phase begins in which

either Bl, B2, or B3 is presented as a sample and

then C 1 , C2, and C3 are presented simultane-

ously. Correct choices will be Cl following B 1,

C2 following B2, and C3 following 83. Again,

training continues until a performance criterion is

reached. Typically, the stimuli used (such as the

picture of an object, the object's spoken nam e,

and the object's written name) are arbitrary (or

meaningless in relation to each other) or form a

class familiar to the language-competent com-

munity but not know n by language-disabled or

developmentally retarded individuals.

A test is required to demonstrate that the three

stimulus equivalence classes have been formed

(the classes will be Al, Bl, and Cl; A2, B2, and

C2; A3, B3, and C3 ). This is achieved by pre-

-` senting C 1 , C2, or C3 as samples and then Al,

A2, and A3 simultaneously as choices. "Correct"

choices (that is, choices indicating that equiva-

lence classes have been formed) will be Al fol-

lowing C I, A2 following C2, and A3 following

C3. Success indicates t

try, and transitivity are a

In language-competent

mance occurs spontaneo

portion of individuals, p

performance in the two

the experiment are suff

ingly, other species do n

equivalence classes (Du

According to Sidman

rived relations must em e

that an equivalence clas

are certain consistencies

1.

f the individual tests

try, and transitivity

must the com bined sy

test. This latter test is

an equivalence test.

2.

If the equivalence test

more of its componen

ative; that is, reflexi

transitivity must be a

3.

If one of these prope

the test for equivalen

attribute this result to

4.

If the test for equival

must all tests for its c

To date most published

cerned with the necessar

t ions of training proced

stimulus equivalence clas

guage competence in suc

the task.

R E L E V A N C E T O E

Much of our everyday

understood when we con

to be treated equivalently

speaks the word

ball

a

sponse from an adult, s

child's ball. When the chi

ball, the child soon learn

sents the toy that is "ball.

child is asked the question

CHAPTER 19

S T I M U L U S E Q U I VA L E N C E

A N D B E H A V IO R T H E R A P Y

Kevin J. Tierney

Maeve Bracken


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396 EARNING AND BEHAVIOR THERAPY

STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE

then given labeling training. One was told,

"That is Omni/Delta," where,as the other was

to ld , "Say Om ni /Del ta." ,The f i rst chi ld

learned the correct labels in 32 trials but failed

the symmetry test again. He was then taught

the labels for the B stimuli and subsequently

passed the test. The second ch ild required 96

trials to leam the labels. She also applied the

labels to the cor responding B s t imuli and

passed the symm etry test.

3. Two children failed to learn the A-B task be-

fore labeling took place. The first child was

then given the relational instruction "That is."

He responded 100% correctly on the A-B task

but failed the symmetry test. He then learned

the labels for the B stimuli and went on to

pass the test. The second child was given the

"Say" instruction but still failed to leam the

labels. Pointing was then introduced. After a

total of 196 labeling trials, she leamed the A-

B relation and reache d criterion after 48 trials.

She then passed the sym metry test.

The results indicate that the leaming of labels

facilitates the learning of conditional discrimina-

tions.

Another way to assess the role of nam ing in

equivalence class formation is to assess non-

humans on similar tasks. Mclntire, Cleary, and

Thompson (198 7) reponed that a group of mon-

keys , that they had trained displayed all the

defining characteristics of equivalence. Hayes

(1989) and Saunders (1989), however, argued

that these results could be attributed to the ex-

tensive training received by the subjects in all

the tested relations (i.e., there were no derived re-

lations). If there are no derived relations, there is

no possibility of an equivalence class.

The results of a study by Savage-Rumbaugh,

Rumbaugh, Sm ith, and Lawson (1980) seemed

much more promising in relation to emergent be-

haviors in nonhumans. Savage-Rum baugh et al.

taught two chimpanzees (Sherman and Austin)

lexigram names for a num ber of food and tool

objects. A food and a tool item were pu t as a set

into each of three bins. The chimps were then re-

inforced for putting the two remaining sets of

tool and food items into the appropriate bins.

Once they had accom plished this, they were re-

quired to put one of the items into a bin and label

it with a food or tool lexigram. They eventually

learned to label the food and tool items w ithout

the use of the bins. They were then presented

with five food items and five tool items that they

had previously learned the lexigram names for

but had not classified as food or tool items.

Austin correctly categorized all the items, and

Sherman incorrectly categorized one.

In the second stage, photographs of the three

foods and tools used in the initial categorization

were taped to the corresponding ob jects, and the

chimps had to label them as food s or tools. Fol-

lowing this, they labeled the pho tographs alone.

Then they were presented with photographs of

four tools and five foods that they had learned the

lexigram names for but had not labeled foods or

tools. Sherman labeled them all correctly, but

Austin had to rotate the photos b efore labeling

them correctly.

In the final stage, the three food and tool lexi-

grams used in training were taped onto photos of

corresponding objects, and the chimps had to

label the objects in the photos as foods or tools.

When they succeeded on this task, the photos

were removed , and the chimps labeled the lexi-

grams. Sherman labe led 15 out of the 16 pre-

sented to him, and Austin labeled 17 out of 17.

According to Cerutti and Rumbaugh (1993),

"Once the foods and tools could be individually

named, sorted by concept class, and named by

concept class, the names of foods and tools could

also be named b y concept class" (p. 817).

This derived relation could be said to be an

equivalence relat ion. To fu lly descr ibe these

stimuli as members of an equivalence class, fur-

ther tests for symmetry and transitivity would

have to be condu cted. It still remains to be seen

whether Sherman and A ustin were treating each

member equivalently.

Schusterman and Kastak (1993) examined the

possibility that a C alifornia sea lion could pass

tests for equivalence. Rio was a three-year-old

California sea lion when the study began. Train-

ing took place in outdoor pools at Long Marine

Laboratory in Santa Cruz, California.

The m atching-to-sample apparatus consisted

of a set of wooden boards con taining three win-

dow-fronted boxes in which the stimuli were

placed. The middle board housed the sample

stimulus, with the comparison stimuli on the

outer boards . The s t imuli were placed in the

boxes by two assistants, who received their in-

structions via headphones from the experimenter.

The comparison stimuli were placed in the boxes

s imultaneously so that the subject would not

make a choice based upon the order of place-

ment. Pieces of fresh fish were given to Rio as re-

inforcement for correct responses.

Thir ty potential equivalence classes were

trained. The stimuli for the first 8 w ere three-di-

mensional "junk" objects made of wood, steel, or

plastic. They were painted black and w ere pre-

sented against a white background. Stimuli for

the next 22 classes consisted of black shapes

painted on a white background on pieces of ply-

wood. After the sample and comparisons were

presented, the subject was expected to m ake a

choice by pressing her nose to the board con-

taining one of the comparisons. Rio learned the

first 2 A-B relations by trial and error, the next 6

by exclusion, and the last 22 by trial and error

again. After each problem had been learned, it

was incorporated into the baseline of previously

learned stimuli. Rio was then tested on 12 B-A

relations, and if they were successfully accom-

plished, training began on B-C relations. These

were taught by trial and error, and when they had

been leamed, they were also incorporated in the

baseline of previously leamed stimuli. Following

training, Rio was tested on C-B symmetry, A-C

transitivity, and C -A equ ivalence.

On the B -A symmetry test, Rio passed 8 out of

12 problems. On the C-B symmetry tests, she

passed 10 out of 1 2 problems, which w as statis-

tically aboye chance. On the A-C transitivity

test, she had a score of 11 out of 12, and on the

C-A test she passed 14 out of 18 tests. Because

Rio passed all the necessary tests for equivalence

without the use of label

tion, it would appear tha

necessary for the form

classes. If this is the cas

equivalence class forma

Sidman (1990) sugg

may not have a source a

a given or a "fundamen

As children grow, they

ticular word in response

particular stimulus. They

reverse, that is, point o

word is spoken. Childre

reinforcement for this ty

called symmetry in equi

sequently engage in it fr

emergent behavior is c

other forms of similar b

as a natural consequenc

lence may be facilitate

upon, the emergence o

through the reinforceme

equivalence is a phenom

is dependent on languag

mally developing langu

the ability to form equi

with the minimum o f ef

SOME APP

Having outlined the b

valence class formation

indicate the relevance o

for behavior therapy.

Anxiety Disorders

As a starting point,

but enduring objection

of anxiety disorders (R

the objections raised b

individuals who suffer

including phobias, can

unpleasant or aversive

ence of a feared stimulu

authors have resorted to


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LEARNING AND BEHAVIOR THERAPY

T I M U L U S E Q U I V A L E N C E

and have em phazised the role of beliefs and ex-

pectations as the cause of p hobias . A related

issue is the failure of anxiety responses to extin-

guish over time.

There is a growing literature on the transfer of

functions through equivalence classes that is of

particular relevance to this issue and may prov ide

an alternative explanation to the cognitive ac-

counts that many au thors have resor ted to in

dealing with the problematic observations re-

ported aboye. Transfer of function refers to the

phenomenon w hereby a discriminative response

trained to one member of an equivalence class

transfers to other memb ers without further train-

ing. There are numerous exam ples of transfer of

discriminative function in the literature. Hayes,

Kohlenberg, and Hayes (1991) have demon-

strated transfer of conditional reinforcement and

punishment functions through equ ivalence classes.

Bames and Keenan (1993) have demonstrated a

transfer of control through equivalence classes of

complex, time-based schedule responding. They

used two different schedules. One was similar to

a ratio schedule and generated high rates of re-

sponding by participants. The other was similar

to a D.R.L. schedule and generated low rate re-

sponding. Hayes, Devany, Kohlenberg, Brown-

stein, and Shelby (1987) demonstrated transfer of

control of c lapping and hand waving. Other

forms of responding that have been shown to

transfer in this manner are conditional matching

(Gatch & Osbom e, 1989) and simple simultane-

ous discriminations (de Rose, Mcllvane, Dube,

& Stoddard, 1988).

The study that is of mo st relevance to present

considerations, however, is a study by D ougher,

Auguston, Markham, Greenway, and W ulfert

(1994). In this study, two experiments were re-

poned n which volunteer col lege students

served as participants. In experiment 1, two four-

member equivalence classes were established

using a standard matching-to-sample training.

This was followed b y classical conditioning in

which a member of one class of stimuli served as

a CS+ for delivery of an electric shock and a

member of the second class served as a CS-. Al-

though there was some variability in responding,

transfer of conditioning was demonstrated to

other members of the equivalence class involving

the stimulus used as a CS+. T he response mea-

sure used was skin conductance. In experiment 2,

it was demonstrated that extinction functions

transferred to all other members of an equiva-

lence class when one member of the class was

presented in an extinction procedure.

Taken in conjunction with the general litera-

ture on transfer of function, these findings pro-

vide an initial response to one of the oldest and

most enduring problems for a contingency-based

account of an im portant clinical disorder. How-

ever, as Dougher et al. (1994) have argued, the

strength and stability of the responses used in

their study are not comparable to those in clini-

cal conditions. Consequently, some caution must

be exercised in ex trapolating from these results.

Another common objection to behavioral ac-

counts of the acquisition of phobias is derived

from the observation that stimuli do not appea r to

have an equ al potential to become conditioned

fear stimuli (Seligman, 1971). Seligman has pro-

posed that certain stimulus-response connections

are biologically "prepared." It is argued that such

connections are of biological significance, easily

conditioned, and slow to extinguish. The tradi-

tional behavioral counterargument to this position

is that ontogenic and not phylogenic processes ac-

count for such noneq uipotentiality of stimuli. That

is, to explain why some stimuli appear to be pre-

pared and others do not, behaviorists have some-

times argued that unobserved experiences within

the lifetime of the individual have produced the

two categories of stimuli. For example, McAllis-

ter and McAllister (1995) argued that experiments

that purport to demo nstrate preparedness often fail

to role out the effects of pseudoconditioning and

sensitization as alternative sources of p repared-

ness. However, this argument is rather weak b e-

cause it relies on individuals hav ing direct experi-

ence of all potential stimuli to prime them as easily

conditioned or difficult-to-condition stimuli. In

practical terms, this route to preparedness seems

cumbersom e and unlikely. Although there is no

research that impinges directly o

this issue, it is

easy to envisage how equivalence classes might

provide a more efficient and plausible ontogenic

mechanism to preparedness. For example, it is

possible that a natural category incorporating po-

tentially phobic stimuli could be formed via a

combination of a naturally occurring analogue of

matching-to-sample training and stimulus gener-

alization, as outlined by Fields et al. (1991). Sub-

sequently, an unpleasant experience with one

member of this class might be sufficient to prime

all other members of that class as easily condi-

tioned stimuli.

Clinical Tests

A second app lication of the equivalence class

literature is based on the assum ption that the fail-

ure of verbally competent human beings to form

equivalence classes, using experimental proce-

dures known to generate equivalence, tells us

something about their existing stimulus classes

and pr ior exper iences . The relevant findings

come from stu dies that employed nonarbitrary

stimuli.

In keeping with a long tradition in behav ior

analysis, the stimuli employed in most studies of

stimulus equivalence to date have been arbitrary

and have had n o intended prior relationship to

each other. They have usually been arbitrary vi-

sual stimuli (e.g., Devany et al. , 1986), although

more recently they have been drug states (de

Grandpre, Bickel, & Higgins, 1992) and hapti-

cally perceived stimuli; that is, stimuli whose

shapes were perceived by m anual wielding

(Tierney, De Largy, & B racken, 1995) have all

been used successfully. However, the history of

behavior analysis teaches us that occasional de-

viations from this time-honored practice may be

informative. For example, the landmark experi-

ment published by G arcia and Koelling (1966)

on taste aversion learning that used nonarbitrary

stimuli had important implications for the study

of associative processes.

An early study that employed nonarbitrary

stimuli in an equivalence experiment was re-

poned by W att , Keenan, Barnes and Cairns ,

(1991), who foun d that if nonarbitrary stimulus

elements were used, some Northem Irish Frotes-

tant subjects failed a test

class formation. This occ

were Catholic names (e.g

elements were nonsense s

C-elements were Protes

ange order). In contrast

sumably without the sam

prior learning about Ca

testant symbols did show

class formation. This res

lus equivalence class for

atically disrupted by prio

stimuli.

An analogous experim

Tiemey, Robinson, Kee

(1993) used the methodo

ner. However, the subjec

were general anxiety pa

were anxiety-related st

used nine patients who

general anxiety and a m

The first stage of trainin

tween stimulus words th

provoking situations (e.

nonsense syllables. Wh

tablished, subjects wer

same nonsense syllables

described pleasant outco

then tested to determine

link between the threate

pleasant outcomes had e

tive links were observed

control subjects but for o

anxiety patients. Furthe

overlap be tween the tw

gence of transitive links

scores on the Speilberger

ventory (Speilberger ,

1970). Thus, the equiva

provide a more powerfu

nating between the two g

routinely used in clinica

pose. Obviously, these f

replicated with larger gr

the methodology can be

tic tool in clinical practic

indications are promisin

398


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400

EARNING AND BEHAV1OR THERAPY STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE

be possible to extend this rationale to other clin-

ical problems.

Reading

Some additional applications of the equiva-

lence literature stem from some early experi-

ments that examined the bas ic phenomenon.

Sidman (1971) was initially interested in reading

comprehension in children with learning diffi-

culties. He viewed the earliest conditional dis-

crimination training experiments as simp lified

vers ions of s tandard reading comprehension

tasks.

According to Sidman and T ailby (1982), the

findings from experiments on matching-to-sam-

ple training are of relevance in three ways. First,

the observation that the number of emergent re-

lations can greatly exceed the number of trained

relat ions means that the procedure is an ex-

tremely efficient form of training. In an early

experiment (Sidman, 1971), retarded adolescente

learned to select pictures (A) conditionally upon

20 dictated picture names

B).

Subsequently,

they learned to select printed names (C) condi-

tionally upon the same 20 dictated names. Sid-

man and Tailby then dem onstrated that A-B and

A-C were equivalence relations by testing for

symmetry and trans it iv i ty. Subjects demon-

strated an ability to correctly select an appropri-

ate picture conditionally upon presentation of a

printed word (C-B) and also to select an appro-

priate printed word conditionally upon presen-

tat ion of a p icture. These were unt rained or

emergent responses that were not evident prior to

training. The training of the 40 conditional rela-

tions had given rise to 80 new p erformances, as

oral naming of pictures (B-A) and printed words

(C-A) was also observed. A later experiment

(Sidman & Tailby, 1982) added an additional

member to the stimulus class, yielding a two- to

fivefold increase in teaching efficiency.

Second, Sidman argued that there are formal

similarities between the types of responding ob-

served in equivalence experiments and reading.

For example, matching auditory to visual stimuli

corresponds to simple auditory comprehension;

matching v isual s t imuli to each o ther cor re-

sponds to reading comprehension, and naming

textual stimuli corresponds to simple oral read-

ing. These formal sim ilarities are sufficient to

suggest that matching-to-sample training might

constitute an efficient teaching method.

Furthermore, Sidman (1994) has demonstrated

that matching auditory words to pictures and to

printed words is a sufficient prerequisite for the

emergence of reading comprehension and oral

reading. He has urged the development of auto-

mated programs to teach reading comprehension

via purely receptive auditory-visual training.

Such an application would constitute a direct

practical application of his and others' experi-

mental findings to an important educational issue.

Third, linguists have challenged behavior an-

alytic accounts of language by arguing that u n-

reinforced utterances are a common feature of

language (e .g ., Chomsky, 1965). The equiva-

lence paradigm provides a mechanism for the

emergence of apparently u nreinforced matching-

to-sample and oral naming and exposes the

potential source of reinforcement for such be-

haviors. Although the account requ ires further

elaboration, it is at least a small step in the di-

rection of addressing this outstanding ob jection

by Chomsky.

General ization

A possible further application of the equiva-

lence paradigm to behavior therapy stems from

some recent work by I. Taylor and M. O'Reilly

(personal communication, December 1995) ,

whose study involved training young adults with

mental disability in the skills required to shop in

a supermarket. In common with many attempts

to teach skills to such individuals, Taylor and

O'Reilly were concerned with the failure to gen-

eralize acquired skills to new settings. They eva l-

uated two methods to improve generalization.

One technique involved training mu ltiple exem--

plars; that is, they trained partioipants in a range

of supermarket settings. The second method in-

VV

volved equivalence training using photographs of

different supermarkets. Both methods were ob-

served to be moderately successful in facilitating

generalization of the acquired skills to new set-

tings.

GENERAL COMMENTS

Some deficiencies have manifested in tradi-

tional behavioral explanations of clinical prob-

lems and other complex behaviors. At a general

level, these difficulties stem from an inability of

behaviorists to specify plausible se ts of historical

antecedents that can accommodate al l that is

known about the nature, distribution, and com-

plexity of such behaviors. The response of many

behavior analysts has been to adopt more cogni-

tively oriented approaches (Latimer & Sweet,

1984).

In this chapter, we have tried to show how the

growing literature on stimulus equivalence can

help to address some of these difficulties by en-

a

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