Recent Developments in RFT Encourage Interbehavioral Field-Based Views of Human Language and Cognition: A Preliminary Analysis

Relational frame theory (RFT) as a behavior-analytic approach to understanding
human language and cognition is now over 40 years old. However, the last 8 years
have seen a relatively intense period of empirical and conceptual developments
within the theory. Some of this work has begun to draw on early and much underplayed
features of RFT, including field-theoretical analyses and concepts. These
analyses are relatively nascent and thus the current article aims to provide a relatively
detailed example of a field-theoretical analysis of a specific RFT research program.
We begin with a brief overview of the “traditional” RFT approach to human
language and cognition, followed by a summary of recent research involving the
implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) and the differential arbitrarily applicable
relational responding effects (DAARRE) model. We then go on to consider
the DAARRE model in the context of J. R. Kantor’s interbehavioral formula for the
psychological event. Having done so, we conclude that the challenge involved in
analyzing increasingly complex forms of human language and cognition appears to
call for more field-based theorizing in some form or another.