Relational Cues are Affectively Differentiated.

VISUAL analog scale; RESEARCH awards; REALIST fiction; CONTEXTUAL analysis

The present study explored whether cues trained to specify relational (Crel) or relational and functional (Crel+func) control are differentially evaluated. If valences vary across Crel+func but not Crel cues, the two cue types would be deemed functionally distinct, as posited by relational frame theory (RFT; McLoughlin et al., 2019). One hundred sixty-six participants, split into six groups, underwent matching-to-sample (MTS) training and testing to establish cues exerting Crel (analogous to the phrases more than or brighter than) or Crel+func (analogous to the phrases happier than or calmer than) control. Besides MTS, cues were evaluated using visual analog scales, which revealed that valence magnitudes varied significantly across Crel+funcand Crel cues. In particular, cues specifying opposing Crel poles (e.g., more vs. less), like cues specifying opposing Crel+func poles (happier vs. unhappier), evoked differential evaluations. This suggests Crel+func and Crel control are functionally reducible to a single Crel+func category, implying the latter anticipates Crel and Cfunc control, contra RFT. After highlighting the limitations inherent to "a-ontological" conceptualizations of contextual cues, we present an alternate take of cue properties derived from Amd's (2022) realist approach, which accounts for the present findings and suggests novel avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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