Relational frame theory and analogical reasoning: Empirical investigations

Much RFT-based research has concentrated on using derived relational responding to model particular aspects of language and higher cognition. One by now particularly successful example of this research is that which has modelled analogical language in terms of the relating of derived relations. The current article describes the progress of research in this area. Initial RFT-based models of analogy have successfully demonstrated several important aspects of this phenomenon, including the presence of non-arbitrary relations, the transformation of behavioral functions and the generativity of analogical language in the naturalistic environment. More recent studies have provided an important extension of this research by examining developmental trends in analogical responding. Perhaps the most notable and unexpected outcome of this latter work is the revelation that the behavioral tradition represented by RFT may by now have provided a precise definition of analogical reasoning in the apparent absence of a similarly precise definition from the cognitive/developmental tradition