Relational Frame Theory provides an analysis of verbal behavior involving a focus on the development of relational operants which are seen as a basis for language. From this basis, a framework is provided for establishing relational networks in individuals who lack derived relational ability. Establishment of relational frames may increase the probability of responding relationally to novel instances and use of the specific relational frames during social interactions; therefore, training verbal relations in accordance with an RFT approach may enhance intraverbal responding and facilitate the emergence of untrained responses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the emergence of specific relationships in the context of intraverbal responding as a collateral effect of training on relational networks in four children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Two participants demonstrated mastery of derived relational responding (DRR) without training, one participant demonstrated mastery of DRR following training, and a fourth participant demonstrated mutual entailment and some combinatorial entailment. Increases in vocal verbal behavior during generalization probes were observed, although increased use of all target relations was not observed in all participants. Further research is needed to evaluate specific deficits in derived relational responding among individuals with ASD, as well as the correlation between DRR and language ability.

This investigation evaluated the use of conditional discrimination (CD) instruction and multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) to establish derived relational responding in accordance with hierarchical frames with school aged children. The first experiment used a multiple probe design to evaluate the effectiveness of MEI to teach participants to correctly respond to BELONGS TO and INCLUDES relations between academically relevant stimuli in the target hierarchy. The protocol was presented via an automated computer program. Written and oral intraverbal pre and posttest were administered to determine if CD instruction and MEI were sufficient for academically relevant behaviors to emerge. Transformation of stimulus functions was assessed using a property inheritance task. A retrospective protocol analysis was used to evaluate the covert verbal behavior the participants were engaging in when responding to the CD across the hierarchy task. The second experiment also used a multiple probe across participants design to assess hierarchical responding. An ABABCB withdrawal design was used to assess the functional relation of covert verbal behavior and the CD across the hierarchy task. The target stimuli and procedures for Experiment 2 were identical to the first experiment with the exception of using a concurrent protocol analysis as opposed to the retrospective protocol analysis to assess the role of the participants' covert verbal behavior on task performance. That is, the second experiment used the silent dog method (Hayes, White, & Bissett, 1998) to assess if self-talk is functionally related to the transformation of stimulus function task.

College students were exposed to training designed to teach nine simple discriminations, such that sets of three arbitrary visual stimuli acquired common functions. For seven of eight participants, three 3-member contingency classes resulted. When the same stimuli were presented in a match-to-sample procedure under test conditions, four participants demonstrated equivalence-consistent responding, matching all stimuli from the same contingency class. Test performance for two participants was systematically controlled by other variables, and for a final participant was unsystematic. Exposure to a yes/no test yielded equivalence-consistent performance for one participant where the match-to-sample test had not. Implications for the treatment of equivalence as a unified, integrated phenomenon are discussed.