Abstract

RUIZ, Francisco J.  and  LUCIANO, Carmen. Relating relations as a functional-analytic model of analogy and metaphor. Acta comport. [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.4, pp. 5-31. ISSN 0188-8145.

The current study presents a functional-analytic model of analogy and metaphor that has been developed during the last fifteen years. The basis of this model is represented by the behavior of relating relations. The characteristics of analogical reasoning are described first emphasizing its central role in understanding human language and cognition. Subsequently, the characteristics and limitations of the cognitive approach to analogical reasoning are briefly described and emphasizing the importance of having a precise definition of analogy and specifying the interactions responsible for its development. Then, the skinnerian approach to metaphor based on the extended tact is described and its role as precursor of the functional-analytic model based on relational responding is recognized. The exposition of this latter model is initiated describing the phenomenon of equivalence stimulus and the experimental paradigm of analogy based on equivalenceequivalence responding. Relational Frame Theory (RFT) is described then as a theoretical approach that facilitates the interpretation of the results that emerge from this experimental paradigm. RFT is a behavior analytic approach to human language and cognition. The main idea behind RFT is that relating stimuli under arbitrary contextual control (i.e., to relate stimuli that do not share formal properties) is a type of generalized operant that is learned through multiple exemplar training. RFT proposes the existence of different types of relations among stimuli or relational frames such as coordination, distinction, opposition, comparison, hierarchy, etc. Every relational frame has three properties: mutual entailment, combinatorial entailment and transformation of functions. From an RFT point of view, analogy involves the establishment of a relation of coordination among common types of trained or derived relations. Metaphor would also involve the establishment of a relation of coordination but, in this case, among two separate relational networks that share some property. Another difference proposed between analogy and metaphor is that analogy is bidirectional but metaphor is unidirectional. To finish with this exposition, some characteristics of the transformation of functions through analogical relations are analyzed. Finally, the empirical evidence based on more than twenty studies is reviewed. In conclusion, the RFT approach has a precise and functional definition of analogy and metaphor and establishes what interactions are responsible for their development. The experimental paradigm based on equivalence-equivalence responding, and other type of procedures also used, has shown relevant data about its external validity. It also has served to model some of the most important characteristics of analogy and to analyze some factors involved in the derivation and quality judgments of analogy. These data show that the RFT approach to analogy and metaphor is promising, but it is recognized that the research on this topic is only in its beginnings.

Keywords : Analogical reasoning; Analogy; Metaphor; Verbal behavior; Relational frame theory; Equivalence-equivalence relations; Relating relations.

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