Regaço Alceu, Harte Colin, Barnes-Holmes Dermot, Leslie Julian, de Rose Julio C
Ulster University, Coleraine, Northern Ireland UK.
Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, Brazil.
Perspect Behav Sci. 2025 Jan 9;48(1):97-114. doi: 10.1007/s40614-024-00427-z. eCollection 2025 Mar.
Research on human language started to change when Murray Sidman and colleagues demonstrated that a participant was able to derive unreinforced stimulus relations after conditional discrimination training. This work provided the basis for a novel approach to research on symbolic behavior and fostered the development of three main theoretical accounts: stimulus equivalence (SE), relational frame theory (RFT), and naming theory (NT). These accounts unfolded in the last decades of the twentieth century, promoting intense debate and discussion within behavior analysis. Although experimental research emerging from these three accounts is still highly active today, the theoretical discussions have, to a large extent, faded. Considering the importance of rekindling a dialogue, this article aims to describe the differences among the three accounts, but focus on their common points. We conclude by arguing that developing a more complete behavior-analytic account of human language would be served best by considering both research and theoretical analyses of SE, RFT and NT. Finally, we provide examples of two successful research groups that adopted this approach and in doing so have advanced our understanding of language within behavior analysis.
当默里·西德曼及其同事证明参与者在条件性辨别训练后能够推导出无强化的刺激关系时，关于人类语言的研究开始发生变化。这项工作为研究符号行为的新方法奠定了基础，并促进了三种主要理论观点的发展：刺激等价性（SE）、关系框架理论（RFT）和命名理论（NT）。这些观点在20世纪的最后几十年中逐渐形成，引发了行为分析领域内的激烈辩论和讨论。尽管如今源于这三种观点的实验研究仍然非常活跃，但理论讨论在很大程度上已经平息。鉴于重新展开对话的重要性，本文旨在描述这三种观点之间的差异，但重点关注它们的共同点。我们认为，通过考虑对SE、RFT和NT的研究及理论分析，将最有助于形成一个更完整的人类语言行为分析观点。最后，我们提供了两个成功研究团队的例子，他们采用了这种方法，从而推进了我们在行为分析中对语言的理解。
