A Review of Relational Frame Theory Research Into Deictic Relational Responding

Relational frame theory (RFT) is a modern behavioral approach to human language and cognition that accounts for complex human behavior, such as perspective taking in terms of derived relational responding. According to RFT, a history of reinforcement for relating deictic relations, such as I–you, here–there, and now–then, may lead to the emergence of a sophisticated repertoire of perspective taking. This theoretical understanding of complex behavior has resulted in the design of interventions to establish these repertoires when deficient. This study analyzes the contributions made to date by the deictic relations approach to perspective taking in typically and atypically developing children and adults. A total of 34 articles published between 2001 and 2015 were selected (26 empirical and 8 nonempirical). The results indicate an expansion of empirical evidence into deictic relations. However, there is still a need for empirical work on its application to atypical development and clinical populations. Future research directions are discussed.