Relational Frame Theory

Description of the Strategy

Relational frame theory (RFT) is a comprehensive behavioral approach to human language and cognition. The theory, while based in behavior analysis and backed up by scores of human operant studies, nevertheless affirms the importance of topics that are not traditionally associated with behavior analytic research, such as thinking, feeling, planning, and reasoning. RFT differs significantly from B. F. Skinner's approach to the topic, offering an alternative operant account.

Research with verbally able humans has demonstrated that given a relationship between two novel stimuli A and B, human beings will derive a relationship between B and A, even though this relation has not been directly trained. For example, a human who has learned to pick B from an array of ...