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| Climbing Out of the Mainstream Rabbit Hole: Extended Exposures to Behavioral Measures for Analysing the Behavioral Stream |
| Saturday, May 24, 2025 |
| 10:00 AM–11:50 AM |
| Convention Center, Street Level, 150 AB |
| Area: EAB; Domain: Translational |
| Chair: Jesús Alonso-Vega (Universidad Europea de Madrid) |
| Discussant: Joao Henrique de Almeida (São Paulo State University) |
| CE Instructor: Kian Assemi, M.S. |
| Abstract: The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) is a method used to assess natural verbal relations, but has been used predominantly in a similar way to measures in mainstream psychology. Specifically, groups of participants have been exposed to brief single exposures to the IRAP. Recent calls, however, have been made to refine the tool into a better understood and more precise functional-analytic procedure by focusing on the extended behavioral stream involving multiple exposures to the procedure, sometimes across days and weeks. The current symposium presents four papers that contribute to this agenda. Specifically, the four papers will consider (1) the historical use of the IRAP and attempts to refocus its use behavior-analytically; (2) the impact of extended exposure to the IRAP task on the stability (or instability) of single-participant patterns and novel data analytic approaches; (3) initial experimental analyses of the impact of multiple exposures (across weeks and months) on single-participant patterns of responding; and (4) experimental analyses of behavioral stability through multiple IRAP exposures in conjunction with multi-dimensional scaling procedures. |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Keyword(s): Behavioral dynamics, IRAP, Multiple Exposures, Single-participant analyses |
| Target Audience: A basic background in behaviour analysis is assumed |
Learning Objectives: 1. Summarize historical and contemporary use of the IRAP for analysing behavioral events
2. Articulate ways in which recent work using the IRAP has sought to gain prediction-and-influence over single-participant patterns of responding produced on the procedure
3. Provide examples of how recent work using the IRAP has sought to refocus its use a functional-analytic tool |
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Falling Off the Edge of a Cliff and Climbing Back Up: Rescuing Frankenstein’s Monster |
| (Theory) |
| DERMOT BARNES-HOLMES (Ulster University), Colin Harte (Universidade Federal de São Carlos) |
| Abstract: The IRAP has been likened to Frankenstein’s monster, drawing on the common metaphor of the hubristic overreaching of a mad scientist who unwittingly creates his own nemesis. Although this may be stretching the metaphor, it is the case that the original purpose of the IRAP as a method for analysing relational responding in-flight was quickly dominated by a mainstream focus on so-called implicit cognition. Consistent with that tradition, the IRAP was almost universally administered across just one or two exposures, and almost ubiquitously in the context of group designs. In doing so, it attracted mainstream attention and although the IRAP literature rarely made explicit mentalistic claims, its effects were interpreted largely in terms of revealing hidden private events. Both politically and conceptually, therefore, the IRAP slipped into the rabbit hole of mainstream methodology and theorising. More recently, however, there has been a concerted effort to drag the IRAP back out of that rabbit hole and employ it in ways that are more consistent with the behavior-analytic tradition. The current paper reviews the foregoing history and considers some of the recent attempts being made to reinvent the IRAP as a useful behavior-analytic tool for experimental analyses of human behavior. |
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| Revisiting the Analysis of the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure at the Individual Level: An Exploration of Stability and Measurement |
| (Basic Research) |
| KIAN ASSEMI (University of Nevada, Reno), Ramona Houmanfar (University of Nevada, Reno) |
| Abstract: Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) research has informed the development of the differential arbitrary relational responding effect (DAARRE) model to help explain single trial type dominance effects (STTDE). Historically, IRAP studies have predominantly utilized group analyses. Our recent research studies, informed by the DAARRE model, which sought to induce STTDEs by training particular histories with nonsense stimuli, were successful in demonstrating single trial type dominance at the group level. However, predictions were not consistently accurate for individual participant data. There are several interpretations that may potentially explain this divergence. While our previous work had sufficient group data to yield a normal distribution and thus reduce concerns of variability, the individual IRAP data did not have sufficient levels of stability to deal with the issue individually. This study implemented IRAPs with significantly more blocks, and trials within blocks to analyze patterns of stability of individual IRAP performance utilizing a variety of measurement procedures, ranging from latency to rate of responding. The results thus far demonstrate variability of individual IRAP performance that seem to decrease overtime across participants. Further analyses of these data sets, and associated implications for future IRAP studies will be presented. |
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| Echoes of Ebbinghaus: A First Attempt at Extended Exposures to the IRAP for Analysing the Behavioral Stream |
| (Basic Research) |
| COLIN HARTE (Universidade Federal de São Carlos), Dermot Barnes-Holmes (Ulster University), Alceu Regaço dos Santos (Universidade Federal de São Carlos), Mariana Cunha (Universidade Federal de São Carlos), Ramon Marin (Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil), Jesús Alonso-Vega (Universidad Europea de Madrid) |
| Abstract: The implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP) emerged within the beahvior-analytic tradition but it has been used almost exclusively as a proxy of mentalistic psychological constructs. Recently, however, research has begun to use the IRAP as a context for analysing the dynamics of arbitrarily applicable relational responding and questions have emerged pertaining to the stability of patterns observed on the instrument across time. The current paper presents the results of six participants (with varying degrees of experience with the instrument) that completed 60 exposures to the IRAP across multiple weeks. The results revealed evidence of both stability and instability in the performances within and across participants. A number of potentially important insights emerged from the work that would not be immediately apparent through single exposure IRAP implementations. Various implications for using the IRAP in future research are considered in light of these findings. In addition, issues related to ergodicity are also discussed. |
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Examining Relational Responding Through Multiple Exposures to the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure and Multidimensional Scaling |
| (Basic Research) |
| BREANNA LEE (Ulster University), Dermot Barnes-Holmes (Ulster University), Julian C. Leslie (Ulster University), Dana Paliliunas (Ball State University), Jordan Belisle (Entiva Behavioral Health), Colin Harte (Universidade Federal de São Carlos) |
| Abstract: The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has recently been used for demonstrating relational responding dominated by functional properties of stimuli (e.g., Finn et al., 2016; Finn et al., 2018). Other research extending concepts in Relational Frame Theory (RFT) have used multidimensional scaling (MDS) for observing similar phenomenon in which stimulus classes form according to psychological impact (Paliliunas et al., 2024). Both lines of work may contribute to more sophisticated explanations of verbal events, but it is unclear how IRAP and MDS performances resemble or differ from one another and how individual performances change over time. The current research examines trends in relational responding through multiple exposures to the IRAP and MDS. Participants completed both an IRAP and MDS containing positive and negative valence images twice per day across ten working days. Individual IRAP and MDS performances were analyzed for each participant, highlighting changes in responding over time and the dominance of functional properties of stimuli. Finally, performances on the IRAP and MDS are compared to identify any similarities or differences in properties of responding captured by each procedure. Implications are discussed in regard to differential responding effects and conceptual analyses of RFT. |
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