The Effects of Verbal Stimuli on Behavior Regulation during Response Deficit: An Exploration into Augmenting

Abstract

Language plays a pivotal role in governing human behavior through rules, influencing both adaptive and maladaptive behaviors. Research has shown that rule-governed behavior often becomes rigid, leading to insensitivity to changing contingencies and contributing to psychological distress. While traditional models of rule-governance provide valuable insights, they fail to explain how verbal stimuli specify contingencies. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) addresses this limitation by explaining rule-governance through contextual cues and derived stimulus relations. Within this framework, augmentals are said to modify the value of events and are categorized as either formative or motivative. While formative augmentals establish given consequences as reinforcers or punishers through trained stimulus relations, motivative augmentals temporarily alter the extent to which previously established consequences function as reinforcers or punishers. Limited research has explored the effects of motivative augmentals within the RFT framework. The study investigated the effects of motivative augmentals on behavior during response deficit condition, employing the disequilibrium model to assess changes in instrumental (advertisement watching) and contingent (video watching) activities. Results showed that the presentation of candidate augmentative verbal stimuli—during a response deficit contingency—lead to reductions in both instrumental and contingent activities compared to that of deficit alone conditions for 7/8 particiapnts. The findings of the study could suggest that motivative augmentals temporarily alter the perceived value of events, and therefore, the regulation of behavior during deficit.