Stewart, I. (2018). Derived Relational Responding and Relational Frame Theory: A Fruitful Behavior Analytic Paradigm for the Investigation of Human Language. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice.
The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance within the experimental analysis of behavior of research on human language and more specifically of an empirical approach based on relational frame theory which focuses on derived or arbitrarily applicable relational responding as a key process underlying this phenomenon. The article starts with a brief review of the Skinnerian approach to language. It then discusses 2 areas of research within behavior analytic research that suggest a distinction between verbal human behavior and the behavior of other groups. It then focuses on relational frame theory (RFT) and its conception of derived or arbitrarily applicable relational responding as a key process underlying language and reviews RFT research in various domains that suggest the promise of this work as an approach to the latter.