April 2021 Speaker Series: Dr. Jordan Belisle (1 CEU)

Relational Dynamics: The Self-Organization of Human Language and Cognition

Abstract

We have witnessed a rapid evolution in our understanding of human language and cognition in the field of behavior analysis over the past 50 years. Developments in Stimulus Equivalence and Relational Frame Theory have co-occurred with the study of complex systems within other natural science disciplines (e.g., physics, chemistry, biology). I will discuss how human language and cognition can be viewed from a dynamical approach that emphasizes higher-order patterns of relational responding. In support of this approach, I will discuss a series of basic experimental studies supporting two potential self-organizing properties of relational frames: Relational resistance and relational gravity. In the first study, the relative strength of relational classes can be predicted given knowledge of relational density. In the second set, class mergers can be predicted given knowledge of relational coherence, or the relative distance between relational classes. This analytic…