The interfering effect of emotional stimulus functions on stimulus equivalence class formation: implications for the understanding and treatment of anxiety

European Journal of Behavior Analysis

Volumn 10, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 215-234

  Tyndall, Ian T ^a   Roche, Bryan ^b   James, Jack E ^c  

^a Irish Universities Association   (Ireland)

^b NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND   (Ireland)

^c NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND   (Ireland)

Author keywords

Anxiety; Functional Equivalence; Functional Stimulus Classes; Humans; Stimulus Equivalence

Indexed keywords

EID: 85042353491     PISSN: None     EISSN: 2377729X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/15021149.2009.11434320     Document Type: Article

References (93)

1. Arntzen, E., & Holth, P. (1997). Probability of stimulus equivalence as a function of training design. The Psychological Record, 47, 309–320.
2. Augustson, E.M., & Dougher, M. J. (1997). The transfer of avoidance evoking functions through stimulus equivalence classes. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 28, 181–191.
3. Barnes, D. (1994). Stimulus equivalence and relational frame theory. The Psychological Record, 44, 91–124.
4. Barnes-Holmes, D., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Smeets, P. M., Cullinan, V., & Leader, G. (2004). Relational frame theory and stimulus equivalence: Conceptual and procedural issues. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 4, 181–214.
5. Beck, A. T. (1993). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: Penguin.
6. Beck, A. T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R. L. (1985). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective. New York: Basic Books.
7. Blackledge, J. T. (2007). Disrupting verbal processes: Cognitive defusion in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and other mindfulness-based psychotherapies. The Psychological Record, 57, 555–576.
8. Christopher, P. J., & Dougher, M. J. (2009). A behavior-analytic account of motivational interviewing. The Behavior Analyst, 32, 149–161.
9. Cohen, J. D., MacWhinney, B., Flatt, M., & Provost, J. (1993). PsyScope: A new graphic interactive environment for designing psychology experiments. Behavioral Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 25, 257–271.
10. Dickins, D. W. (2001). Equivalence is to do with symbols, and it is cognitive. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 2, 53–56.
11. Dinsmoor, J. A. (1995). Stimulus control: Part II. The Behavior Analyst, 18, 253–269.
12. Dixon, M. R., Dymond, S., Rehfeldt, R. A., Roche, B., & Zlomke, K. R. (2003). Terrorism and relational frame theory. Behavioral and Social Issues, 12, 129–147.
13. Dougher, M. J. (1993). Introduction. The Behavior Analyst, 16, 269–270.
14. Dougher, M. J. (1998). Stimulus equivalence and the untrained acquisition of stimulus functions. Behavior Therapy, 29, 577–591.
15. Dougher, M. J., Augustson, E. M., Markham, M. R., Greenway, D., & Wulfert, E. (1994). The transfer of respondent eliciting and extinction functions through stimulus equivalence classes. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 331–351.
16. Dougher, M. J., Hamilton, D. A., Fink, D. A., Fink, B. C., & Harrington, J. (2007). Transformation of the discriminative and eliciting functions of generalised relational stimuli. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 88, 179–197.
17. Dougher, M. J., & Markham, M. R. (1994). Stimulus equivalence, functional equivalence and the transfer of function. In S. C. Hayes, L. J. Hayes, M. Sato, & K. Ono (Eds.), Behavior analysis of language and cognition (pp. 71–90). Reno, NV: Context Press.
18. Dougher, M. J., & Markham, M. R. (1996). Stimulus classes and the untrained acquisition of stimulus functions. In T. R. Zentall & P. M. Smeets (Eds.), Stimulus class formation in animals and humans (pp. 137–152), North-Holland: Elsevier.
19. Dymond, S., & Rehfeldt, R. A. (2000). Understanding complex behaviour: The transformation of stimulus functions. The Behavior Analyst, 23, 239–254.
20. Dymond, S., & Roche, B. (2009). A contemporary behaviour analysis of anxiety and avoidance. The Behavior Analyst, 32, 7–27.
21. Dymond, S., Roche, B., Forsyth, J. P., Whelan, R., & Rhoden, J. (2007). Transformation of avoidance response functions in accordance with same and opposite relational frames. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 88, 249–262.
22. Ellis, A. (2001). Overcoming destructive beliefs, feelings, and behaviors: New directions for rational emotive behavior therapy. New York: Prometheus Books.
23. Field, A. P. (2006). Is conditioning a useful framework for understanding the development and treatment of phobias? Clinical Psychology Review, 26, 857–875.
24. Fields, L. (2001). Synergies between stimulus and functional equivalence. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 2, 62–66.
25. Follette, W. C. (1998). Expanding the domains of clinical behaviorism: A comment on Dougher. Behavior Therapy, 29, 593–601.
26. Follette, W. C., & Bonow, J. T. (2009). The challenge of understanding process in clinical behavior analysis: The case of functional analytic psychotherapy. The Behavior Analyst, 32, 135–148.
27. Forsyth, J. P. (2000). A process-oriented behavioural approach to the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of anxiety-related disorders. In M. J. Dougher (Ed.), Clinical behavior analysis (pp. 153–180). Reno, NV: Context Press.
28. Forsyth, J. P., & Eifert, G. H. (1996). The language of feeling and the feelings of anxiety: Contributions of the behaviorisms toward understanding the function-altering effects of language. The Psychological Record, 46, 607–649.
29. Friman, P.C., Hayes, S. C., & Wilson, K. G. (1998). Why behavior analysts should study emotion: The example of anxiety. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31, 137–156.
30. Forsyth, J. P., & Eifert, G. H. (2008). The mindfulness and acceptance workbook for anxiety: A guide to breaking free from anxiety, phobias, and worry using acceptance and commitment therapy. New York: New Harbinger.
31. Green, G., & Saunders, R. R. (1998). Stimulus equivalence. In K. A. Lattal and M. Perone (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in human operant behavior (pp. 229–262). New York: Plenum Press.
32. Hall, G. (2001). Mechanisms of functional equivalence. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 2, 69–71.
33. Hayes, S. C., & Barnes, D. (1997). Analysing derived stimulus relations requires more than the concept of stimulus class. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 68, 235–244.
34. Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (Eds.). (2001). Relational Frame Theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. New York: Plenum Press.
35. Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behavior Research and Therapy, 44, 1–25.
36. Hayes, S. C., & Smith, S. (2005). Get out of your mind and into your life: The new Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.
37. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An experiential approach to behaviour change. New York: Guilford Press.
38. Hayes, S. C., & Wilson, K. G. (1993). Some applied implications of a contemporary behavior-analytic account of verbal events. The Behavior Analyst, 16, 283–301.
39. Hayes, S. C., & Wilson, K. G. (1994). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Undermining the verbal support for experiential avoidance. The Behavior Analyst, 17, 289–303.
40. Hove, O. (2003). Differential probability of equivalence class formation following a one-to-many versus a many-to-one training structure. The Psychological Record, 53, 617–634.
41. Kindt, M., & Brosschot, J. F. (1997). Phobia-related cognitive bias for pictorial and linguistic stimuli. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106, 644–688.
42. Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2005). International affective picture system (IAPS): Affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual. Technical Report A-6. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
43. Lazarus, A. (1984). On the primacy of cognition. American Psychologist, 39, 124–129.
44. Leslie, J. C., Tierney, K. J., Robinson, C. P., Keenan, M., Watt, A., & Barnes, D. (1993). Differences between clinically anxious and non-anxious subjects in a stimulus equivalence training task involving threat words. The Psychological Record, 43, 153–161.
45. Markham, R. G., & Markham, M. R. (2002). On the role of covarying functions in stimulus class formation and transfer of function. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 78, 509–525.
46. Masuda, A., Hayes, S. C., Sackett, C. F., & Twohig, M. P. (2004). Cognitive defusion and self-relevant negative thoughts: examining the impact of a ninety-year-old technique. Behavior Research and Therapy, 42, 477–485.
47. Mathews, A. M., & MacLeod, C. M. (1994). Cognitive approaches to emotion and emotional disorders. Annual Review of Psychology, 45, 25–50.
48. Miller, R. R., & Escobar, M. (2002). Laws and models of basic conditioning. In C. R., Gallistel (Ed.), Stevens handbook of experimental psychology, 3rd ed., Volume 3: Learning and motivation (pp. 47–102). Wiley: New York.
49. Minster, S. T., Jones, M., Eliffe, D., & Muthukumarasawmy, S. D. (2006). Stimulus equivalence: Testing Sidman’s (2000) theory. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 85, 371–391.
50. Moxon, P. D., Keenan, M., & Hine, L. (1993). Gender-role stereotyping and stimulus equivalence. The Psychological Record, 43, 381–393.
51. Pilgrim, C., Chambers, L., & Galizio, M. (1995). Reversal of baseline relations and stimulus equivalence: II. Children. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 63, 239–254.
52. Pilgrim, C., & Galizio, M. (1990). Relations between baseline contingencies and equivalence probe performances. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 54, 213–224.
53. Pilgrim, C., & Galizio, M. (1995). Reversal of baseline relations and stimulus equivalence: I. Adults. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 63, 225–238.
54. Pilgrim, C., & Galizio, M. (2000). Stimulus equivalence and units of analysis. In J. C. Leslie & D. Blackman (Eds.), Experimental and Applied Analysis of Human Behavior (pp. 111–126). Reno, NV: Context Press.
55. Plaud, J. J. (1995). The formation of stimulus equivalences: Fear-relevant versus fear-irrelevant stimulus classes. The Psychological Record, 45, 207–222.
56. Plaud, J. J. (1997). Behavioral analysis of fear-related responding using a modified matching-to-sample procedure. Scandinavian Journal of Behavior Therapy, 26, 157–170.
57. Plaud, J. J., Gaither, G. A., Franklin, M., Weller, L. A., & Barth, J. (1998). The effects of sexually explicit words on the formation of stimulus equivalence classes. The Psychological Record, 48, 63–79.
58. Poulton, R., & Menzies, R. G. (2002). Non-associative fear acquisition: A review of the evidence from retrospective and longitudinal research. Behavior Research and Therapy, 40, 127–140.
59. Rachman, S. (1977). The conditioning theory of fear acquisition: A critical examination. Behavior Research and Therapy, 15, 375–384.
60. Rehfeldt, R. A., & Hayes, L. J. (2000). The long-term retention of generalised equivalence classes. The Psychological Record, 50, 405–428.
61. Roche, B, & Barnes, D. (1997). A transformation of respondently conditioned stimulus functions in accordance with arbitrarily applicable relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 67, 275–301.
62. Roche, B., Barnes, D., & Smeets, P. M. (1997). Incongruous stimulus pairing contingencies and conditional discrimination training: Effects on relational responding. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 68, 143–160.
63. Roche, B., Barnes-Holmes, D., Smeets, P. M., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & McGready, S. (2000). Contextual control over the derived transformation of discriminative and sexual arousal functions. The Psychological Record, 50, 267–291.
64. Roche, B., Stewart, I., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (1999). PsyScope: An easy-to-use graphical system for designing and controlling equivalence experiments. Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin, 17, 5–7.
65. Rodriguez, M. V., Luciano, C. S., Gutierrez, O. M., & Hernandez, M. L. (2004). Transfer of latent inhibition of aversively conditioned autonomic responses through equivalence classes. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 4, 605–622.
66. Saunders, R. R., & Green, G. (1999). A discrimination analysis of training-structure effects on stimulus equivalence outcomes. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 72, 117–137.
67. Sidman, M. (1971). Reading and auditory-visual equivalences. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 14, 5–13.
68. Sidman, M. (1990). Equivalence relations: Where do they come from? In D.E. Blackman & H. Lejeune (Eds.), Behavior analysis in theory and practice: Contributions and controversies (pp. 93–114). Boston: Erlbaum.
69. Sidman, M. (1994). Equivalence relations and behavior: A research story. Boston: Authors Cooperative Inc.
70. Sidman, M. (2000). Equivalence relations and the reinforcement contingency. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 74, 127–146.
71. Sidman, M., & Tailby, W. (1982). Conditional discrimination vs. matching-to-sample: An expansion of the testing paradigm. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37, 5–22.
72. Smeets, P. M., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2005). Establishing equivalence classes in preschool children with one-to-many and many-to-one protocols. Behavioral Processes, 69, 281–293.
73. Smeets, P. M., Barnes, D., & Roche, B. (1997). Functional equivalence in children: Derived stimulus-response and stimulus-stimulus relations. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 66, 1–17.
74. Smeets, P. M., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Akpinar, D., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2003). Reversal of equivalence relations. The Psychological Record, 53, 91–119.
75. Smeets, P. M., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Striefel, S. (2006). Establishing and reversing equivalence relations with a precursor to the relational evaluation procedure. The Psychological Record, 56, 267–286.
76. Smith, J. C., Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (2005). State anxiety and affective physiology: Effects of sustained exposure to affective pictures. Biological Psychology, 69, 247–260.
77. Thorpe, S. J., & Salkovskis, P. M. (1997). Information processing in spider phobia: The Stroop colour naming task may indicate strategic but not automatic attentional bias. Behavior Research and Therapy, 35, 131–144.
78. Thorpe, S. J., & Salkovskis, P. M. (1998). Selective attention to real phobic and safety stimuli. Behavior Research and Therapy, 36, 471–481.
79. Tierney, K. J., & Bracken, M. (1998). Stimulus equivalence and behavior therapy. In W. T. O’Donoghue (Ed.), Learning and behavior therapy (pp. 392–402). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
80. Tonneau, F. (2001). Equivalence relations: A critical analysis. European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 2, 1–33.
81. Tonneau, F., & Gonzalez, C. (2004). Function transfer in human operant experiments: The role of stimulus pairings. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 81, 239–255.
82. Tyndall, I. T., Roche, B., & James, J. E. (2004). The relation between stimulus function and equivalence class formation. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 81, 257–266.
83. Valdivivia-Salas, S., Forsyth, P., & Luciano, C. S. (2009, May). Attentional bias for laboratory-induced threat and transfer of colour-naming interference. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Phoenix, AZ.
84. Vilardaga, R., Hayes, S. C., Levin, M. F., & Muto, T. (2009). Creating a strategy for progress: A contextual behavioural science approach. The Behavior Analyst, 32, 105–133.
85. Waltz, T. J., & Follette, W. C. (2009). Molar functional relations and clinical behaviour analysis: Implications for assessment and treatment. The Behavior Analyst, 32, 51–68.
86. Watt, A., Keenan, M., Barnes, D., & Cairnes, E. (1991). Social categorization and stimulus equivalence. The Psychological Record, 41, 33–50.
87. Wilkinson, K. M., & McIlvane, W. J. (2001). Methods for studying symbolic behavior and category formation: Contributions of stimulus equivalence research. Developmental Review, 21, 355–374.
88. Williams, J. M. G., Mathews, A. M., & MacLeod, C. M. (1996). The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 3–24.
89. Wilson, K. G., & Hayes, S. C. (1996). Resurgence of derived stimulus relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 66, 267–281.
90. Wilson, K. G., & Hayes, S. C. (2000). Why it is crucial to understand thinking and feeling: An analysis and application to drug abuse. The Behavior Analyst, 23, 25–43.
91. Wilson, K. G., Hayes, S. C., Gregg, J., & Zettle, R. D. (2001). Psychopathology and psychotherapy. In S. C. Hayes, D. Barnes-Holmes, & B. Roche (Eds.), Relational Frame Theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. (pp. 211–237). New York: Plenum Press.
92. Wirth, O., & Chase, P. N. (2002). Stability of functional equivalence and stimulus equivalence: Effects of baseline reversals. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 77, 29–47.
93. Wray, A. M., Freund, R. A., & Dougher, M. J. (2009). A behavior-analytic account of cognitive bias in clinical populations. The Behavior Analyst, 32, 29–49.