Effects of changing contingencies on the behavior of depressed and nondepressed individuals

The Study of Rule-Governed Behavior and Derived Stimulus Relations: Bridging the Gap

The concept of rule-governed behavior or instructional control has been widely recognized for many decades within the behavior-analytic literature. It has also been argued that the human capacity to formulate and follow increasingly complex rules may undermine sensitivity to direct contingencies of reinforcement, and that excessive reliance upon rules may be an important variable in human psychological suffering. Although the concept of rules would appear to have been relatively useful within behavior analysis, it seems wise from time to time to reflect upon the utility of even well-established concepts within a scientific discipline. Doing so may be particularly important if it begins to emerge that the existing concept does not readily orient researchers toward potentially important variables associated with that very concept. The primary purpose of this article is to engage in this reflection. In particular, we will focus on the link that has been made between rule-governed behavior and derived relational responding, and consider the extent to which it might be useful to supplement talk of rules or instructions with terms that refer to the dynamics of derived relational responding.

The Dark-Side of Rule Governed Behavior

The current research set out to investigate whether adolescents who self-reported high or low levels of depressive symptomatology would demonstrate differential sensitivity to changing contingencies as a function of accurate/inaccurate (Experiment 1) or pliance/tracking instructions (Experiment 2). Following a screening procedure, students were divided into two groups and instructed on how to respond during a simple learning task. In Experiment 1, we observed a characteristic set of outcomes that were contingent upon the type of instructional control provided and levels of depressive symptomatology reported. Whereas accurate instructions resulted in quick and efficient learning (schedule sensitivity) regardless of depressive symptomatology, inaccurate instructions lead to problematic rule-following in the high depressive symptom group. Experiment 2 revealed that schedule insensitivity effects can be further augmented when participants who report depressive symptoms are equipped with a set of superordinate pliance instructions. In contrast, students in the tracking condition showed increasing adaptation to the changing contingencies throughout the study.

An experimental investigation of the effect of worry on responses to a discrimination learning task

The current study examined the impact of both the tendency to worry (trait worry) and the process of worry (state worry) on subsequent behavioral responding in a schedule discrimination learning task. High and low trait worriers were randomly assigned to a state worry or relaxation incubation condition and completed a test of executive functioning and a dual contingency learning task that utilized neutral discriminative cues over the course of 2 contingency phases. Although state and trait worry did not impact executive functioning, the state worry condition was associated with diminished sensitivity to learning task contingencies over the course of the first contingency learning trials in comparison to the relaxation condition. This relationship was unique to the state worry condition above and beyond shared variance with subjective anxiety level. Results suggest that state worry may lead to a decrement in selective behavioral responding to neutral discriminative cues in the environment. The findings suggest that the process of worry may lead to less adaptive responding to neutral cues and interfere with adaptive behaviors, which may thereby contribute to and maintain anxiety.

The nature of clinical depression: symptoms, syndromes, and behavior analysis

In this article we discuss the traditional behavioral models of depression and some of the challenges analyzing a phenomenon with such complex and varied features. We present the traditional model and suggest that it does not capture the complexity of the phenomenon, nor do syndromal models of depression that dominate the mainstream conceptualization of depression. Instead, we emphasize ideographic analysis and present depression as a maladaptive dysregulation of an ultimately adaptive elicited emotional response. We emphasize environmental factors, specifically aversive control and private verbal events, in terms of relational frame theory, that may transform an adaptive response into a maladaptive disorder. We consider the role of negative thought processes and rumination, common and debilitating aspects of depression that have traditionally been neglected by behavior analysts.