Relational Frame Theory: Implications for the Study of Human Language and Cognition

This chapter considers how the ability to relationally frame sets the stage for the emergence of language and how the former's generative and flexible nature accounts for much of the latter's utility. It also highlights how relational framing rapidly increases in both scale and complexity, expanding from the relating of individual stimuli to the relating of relational networks to other networks. The chapter describes the notion of “cognition” and considers how different types and properties of relational framing play a role in perspective-taking, intelligence, and implicit cognition. It concludes by providing a brief overview of the key achievements of relational frame theory (RFT) research to date. However, by specifying variables that facilitate prediction-and-influence, RFT seems to extend beyond alternative accounts, providing a comprehensive, theoretically unified, empirically grounded, and practically applicable account of complex human behavior.