A pilot study of the relations within which hearing voices participates : towards a functional distinction between voice hearers and controls

The current research used the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a preliminary step toward bringing a broad, functional approach to understanding psychosis, by focusing on the specific phenomenon of auditory hallucinations of voices and sounds (often referred to as hearing voices). On this path, we created a taxonomy of some critical features of voice hearing based on the existing literature (i.e., perceived normality of voices, appraisals of self and other people hearing voices, and fear of voices) as a focus of our experimental manipulations. It was our hope that our findings would add to the broad literature that has used explicit measures to study these phenomena, and that the use of an 'implicit' measure might assist toward a functional analytic understanding. Three pilot studies were conducted to assess the relations within which hearing voices participates in non-clinical voice hearers (i.e., individuals who hear voices but have no clinical diagnosis or distress) and compared to non-voice hearing control participants. The IRAP effects demonstrated both positive and negative relational responses across the three studies, and these effects varied according to explicit levels of delusional ideation. Furthermore, these IRAP effects also predicted explicit aspects of voice hearing and well-being. The current set of pilot studies demonstrate the utility and precision of the IRAP in this domain, and we propose that this type of experimental analysis may hold potential for future bottom-up functional analyses of voice hearing

Functional relations modulate the responsiveness to affordances despite the impact of conflicting stimulus-response mappings

The study investigated how conflicting stimulus-response mappings influenced affordance processing given a manipulation of the functional relations. Participants performed a task involving consistent-inconsistent stimulus-response mappings: Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP). They were instructed to confirm or to deny a relation between words and tool-objects (consistent blocks) or to provide non-conventional responses (inconsistent blocks). The relations between stimuli could functionally match (e.g., Kitchen- Spatula) or not (e.g., Kitchen- Hammer), as well as the spatial relations (e.g., a match or a mismatch between participants' hand response and the tool-object orientation). The results showed faster reaction times (RTs) when functional relations between stimuli matched both in consistent and inconsistent blocks. Differences in RTs and accuracy between consistent and inconsistent blocks were only found when the functional relation between stimuli matched. No modulation of the performance was observed for mismatching functional relations and spatial relations between blocks. These results support the hypothesis that the responsiveness to affordances is strongly modulated by matching functional relations, despite the impact of conflicting stimulus-response mappings

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a measure of spider fear, avoidance and approach

The current study examined the use of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) as a measure of spider fear, approach, and avoidance. Participants were drawn from a normative sample of university undergraduates. Experiment 1employed two IRAPs, one targeting spider fear, the other targeting spider approach/avoidance. The Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) and a Behavioral Approach Task (BAT) using a spider moult were also employed. Negative response biases for spider fear and avoidance, but not for approach, were recorded. The bias for fear was significantly stronger than for avoidance and approach. Both IRAP's failed to provide evidence for the predicative validity of the IRAP in terms of the BAT. Experiment 2 was a partial replication of Experiment 1 but using a live house spider instead of a moult for the BAT. A similar pattern of results was obtained across the two IRAPs, but one specific trial-type (SpiderApproach) predicted approach responses on the BAT. The research, thus, replicated a previously published study by Nicholson and Barnes-Holmes (2012), thus supporting the predictive validity of the IRAP but at a level of precision not provided in the earlier study. Implications for applied research are considered

Narrative : its importance in modern behavior analysis and therapy

The current article considers how the analysis of language and cognition in RFT may be conceptualized as a multi-dimensional multi-level framework (MDML) for understanding how simple units of analysis specified in RFT connect to more complex units, such as the relating of relational networks, which is seen as critical to narrative and story-telling. A brief outline of the framework is used to illustrate the importance of narrative in the treatment of human psychological suffering. In addition, the development of the concepts of verbal functional analysis and the drill-down are presented as examples of how the therapeutic relationship itself can be understood through the lens of the MDML and RFT more generally

Using the IRAP to explore natural language statements

This study explored a modification to the typical presentation of label and target stimuli on Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) effects. We asked whether combining the labels and targets into a single phrase would influence performances. The key purpose of the study was to determine the feasibility of altering the way in which stimuli are presented within the IRAP, so as to potentially employ more complex natural language-like statements in future research. In the Typical IRAP employed here, labels and targets were presented as separate words, while in the Natural Language IRAP they were combined to form a single statement. The results demonstrated no substantive differences in the effects recorded on both types of IRAP, thus supporting the future use of a Natural Language version