This is getting a bit esoteric, and since I retired I can't pull volumes off my bookshelf the way I used to. In brief:
Schusterman & Kastak (1993) has never been replicated, so the jury is still out, particularly since attempts at showing equivalence class formation in nonhuman primates and cetaceans have all failed. I'm quite familiar with Dave Palmer and his work (including that review). see: Dialogue on private events. DC Palmer, J Eshelman, P Brandon, TVJ Layng, C … - The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 2004. He's quite skeptical about some of the Hayes bunch claims, but does not dismiss framing relationally out of hand. And Skinner DID use the term relational framing (in Verbal Behavior, I believe), although he didn't develop it the way Hayes did. There's a considerable applied literature on verbal behavior demonstrating the extension of the operant conditioning principles originally derived from animals (and extended to human animals -- see Darwin, C) over the past half century. Again, there's a considerable literature on the application of equivalence and framing to teaching verbal behavior; I'm not going to try to summarize it here. One core finding is symmetry and transitivity -- basic definitional criteria of equivalence. For example, if one teaches responding to pictures with words, a symmetrical responding to words by pointing to pictures emerges. This has been demonstrated convincingly only with human subjects (pace Schusterman). Similarly, if one teaches responding to spoken words with written words, and responding to written words with pictures, responding to spoken words with pictures will emerge, despite the fact that this has never been taught. The relevance of this to human language should be clear (an exercise left to the reader ;-). On Apr 8, 2009, at 11:30 AM, Mike Palij wrote: > On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:46:05 -0700, Paul Brandon wrote: >> On Apr 6, 2009, at 1:54 PM, Mike Palij wrote: >>> On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:13:50 -0700, Paul Brandon writes: >>>> Actually, there's no conflict between being a rat running >>>> behaviorist >>>> and believing that the CNS (central or conceptual as the case >>>> may be) >>> >>> What's that sound? Is that B.F. spinning in his grave? >> >> No. > > <Cups hand to ear and concentrates> Yep, he's spinning, > He's also saying something about RFT but he's using a different F- > word. > He's also saying something about people should read David Palmer's > 2004 review of "Relational Frame Theory" in JEAB before associating > his name with the Hayes & Barnes-Holmes crowd. > >>>> is an integrated interactive system all of which is involved in any >>>> given instance of behavior. And of course we talk a great deal >>>> about verbally mediated behavior in all of its complexity. >>> >>> I may be mistaken but I think my original point has been lost: >>> >>> (1) Conditioning studies involving animals [insert your favorite >>> species here] >> >> including humans > > That's pretty trans-species of you. However, last I checked, animals > don't have language systems like those used by humans, so whether > conditioning studies based on animals might be modified by language > processes that humans can use is still a question. > >>> may have questionable generalizability to humans because animals >>> do not have language or high level symbolic processing capability >> >> see the operant conditioning literature on Stimulus Equivalence and >> Relational Framing. Neither process has been convincingly >> demonstrated >> with nonhuman subjects. > > Schusterman & Kastak (1993) called. The sea lion says that he's going > to sue you for libel if you keep on saying that he can't form > equivalence > relations. > > With all respects to Sidman, I really don't see the relevance of ER > and RFT > to human language. But that's just my opinion. > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > > > > They are an integral part of verbal behavior in all its glory. > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
