Assessing and training temporal relational responding in children

Time is a fundamentally important dimension of human experience and responding adaptively in terms of this dimension is critical to human personal and societal functioning. However, there is an important distinction to be made between responding to time as a physical or nonarbitrary dimension of existence and time as an abstract concept. It is the latter that is critical to the type of self-knowledge and societal organization that is unique to human life. Relational frame theory (RFT) sees relational framing, and temporal relational framing in particular, as key to this uniquely human level of responding. Temporal relational framing is a form of derived relational framing that involves responding under the control of contextual cues such as the words "before” and “after” to stimuli in terms of their directional displacement along a temporal dimension (e.g., if taught that A is after B; then derive that B is before A). Important skills such as sequencing events, planning, time understanding, or talking about the past or future typically involve temporal relations. Accordingly, relational responding in the presence of temporal relational cues such as “before” and “after” is an important building block to more complex repertoires from an RFT perspective. Existing psychological research on temporal relations is mostly composed of descriptive studies and limited to investigations with age-level performance. Moreover, although previous RFT studies have taught several other varieties of relational responding, little work has yet been done in the case of temporal relational frames. The current thesis aimed to extend research in this area by conceptualizing how time as an abstract concept can be approached from an RFT perspective, and by developing RFT-based assessment and training procedures for temporal relational framing in children. In support of these overall objectives, a narrative review and conceptual analysis (Chapter 2) was first done, which had three primary aims. The first aim was to summarize the existing psychological research into time-related skill sets in humans given the vast areas of investigation within this domain. The second aim was to explain temporal relational framing and the present state of relevant research into this skill. The third aim was to conceptually explore how the RFT approach to human temporal responding might amplify and extend the existing research base, in particular with respect to the acquisition and training of key aspects of temporal responding. Study 1 (Chapter 3) was an empirical starting point based on one area of need identified in Chapter 2. The aim of Study 1 was to assess performance on a test of temporal relational responding in young children at increasing levels of complexity. Twenty-five typically developing children between 3-8 years were assessed on tasks of nonarbitrary (i.e., based on physical events) and arbitrary (i.e., based on contextual cues only) temporal relations. Nonarbitrary testing involved responding to observed sequences of stimuli and answering “before” and “after” questions about the order. Arbitrary testing was conducted using an adapted version of a relational evaluation procedure (REP) format which involved vocally responding to “before” and “after” questions about a presented temporal relational network across many exemplars (Kirsten & Stewart, 2022). Additionally, a transformation of stimulus function was assessed on trials that involved performing motor actions in a particular sequence based on the presented relational network. Results showed a correlation between overall performance across temporal relational responding tasks and age. Performance on nonarbitrary “before” and “after” trials improved similarly with age whereas with arbitrary relations, participants performed much more poorly on “after” trials than on “before” trials and some interesting cohort specific patterns were also seen. The data from Study 1 provided insight into how children of various ages may respond on temporal relational responding tasks; however, it remained unclear whether a behavioral training approach could be used improve performance. Study 2 (Chapter 4) aimed to develop a training protocol for teaching derived temporal relations in young children. Previous research has shown that multiple exemplar training (MET) can be used to train relational framing in children, though no work has been done specifically with temporal frames. Informed by the results of Study 1, this second study trained two typically developing 6-year-olds in derived temporal relational responding using a MET procedure in a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design. Study 2 used a similar REP format as in Study 1 in which various relational networks were shown and participants vocally answered “before” and “after” questions about the presented relations. Training involved reinforcement and error correction procedures for correct and incorrect responding, respectively. Following training, both participants reached criterion levels and passed generalization tests for both mutual and combinatorial relations with untrained stimuli and maintained performance four-weeks after training was finished. Study 3 (Chapter 5) aimed to replicate and extend Study 2. A similar procedure was used as in the previous study but now with the inclusion of a protocol for training and testing of sequenced responses to allow for assessment of transformation of stimulus function. Three typically developing 5-year-olds were taught using MET in a combined multiple probe design across participants and responses. Training involved reinforcement procedures for correct responses and error correction procedures for incorrect responses. Following training, all participants reached criterion levels and passed generalization tests for mutual and combinatorial entailment, and transformation of function with untrained stimuli and maintained high overall performance four weeks following training. In both Studies 2 and 3, participants were specifically taught to relationally respond to arbitrary temporal relations. Despite the importance of arbitrary relations, some individuals may present with more significant deficits in which beginning intervention at a nonarbitrary (i.e., physically based) level is needed prior to progressing to more abstract relations. Study 4 (Chapter 6) aimed to assess existing temporal relational responding skills in three adolescents with ASD and to evaluate the efficacy of an RFT-based multiple exemplar training (MET) procedure to teach nonarbitrary temporal relations (responding to sequential changes in the environment), which constitute an important foundation for derived temporal relations. Participants were taught using multiple exemplars of 2-image stimulus sequences and answered “before” and “after” questions regarding the observed order. Reinforcement and error correction procedures were applied for correct and incorrect responding, respectively. Results indicated that all participants achieved mastery for nonarbitrary temporal relations following MET and that the skill generalized across novel stimuli. The present thesis contributed to the literature base by providing an initial data set in terms of age-level responding on temporal relational responding tasks, creating a training protocol that can be used to teach temporal frames, and by extending research on temporal frames to new demographics. Additionally, several other time-related skills were identified as potential areas for further investigation from an RFT approach. In Chapter 7, the final chapter of this thesis, applied and theoretical implications of the data obtained, limitations of the studies, and potential future directions for research in this area are discussed.

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NUI Galway

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland
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University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)