Contextual influence over deriving others' true beliefs using a relational triangulation perspective‐taking protocol (RT‐PTP‐M1)
A short equivalence-based protocol can quickly teach verbally able adults to infer others’ true beliefs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Guinther (2017) built a new protocol called RT-PTP-M1.
It teaches adults to figure out what another person truly believes.
Eight verbally skilled adults joined.
None could pass a belief-inference test at the start.
The trainer used stimulus-equivalence drills.
Learners matched pictures of people, objects, and belief statements.
After training, the team checked if each adult could now derive the correct belief without hints.
What they found
Seven of the eight adults suddenly passed the belief test.
They could say, "She thinks the toy is in the red box," even though they never practiced that exact scene.
The result showed the protocol created new perspective-taking skills fast.
How this fits with other research
Guinther (2018) is the direct sequel.
One year later the same lab added a false-belief module (RT-PTP-M2).
Together the two papers give a full recipe: first teach true beliefs, then teach false ones.
Barron et al. (2019) moves the idea to kids with autism.
They used PEAK-T lessons for "then-later" and "here-there" relations.
Both studies use equivalence training, but Barron’s targets younger learners and simpler relations.
Stewart et al. (2013) supplies the engine.
That paper proved arbitrary cues trained through equivalence can later control which response you give.
RT-PTP-M1 borrows that engine and points it at perspective-taking.
Why it matters
You now have a brief, scripted way to build true-belief inference in verbally able clients.
Run the RT-PTP-M1 drills, then jump to the 2018 false-belief module for the full sequence.
The single-case design means you can replicate it one client at a time and see the effect in your own data.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper introduces the relational triangulation framework as a functional contextual expansion of the established Relational Frame Theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001) account of perspective-taking. Initial support for the new framework is provided through data collected with a novel relational triangulation perspective-taking protocol configured in the present study to show contextual influence over deriving true belief in others following the direct training of a "seeing leads to knowing" repertoire (Leslie & Frith, 1988). Eight verbally competent adults were directly trained to make operant discriminations on a first set of target stimuli (i.e., the identities of three distinct figurines) and then directly trained to make contextually controlled deictic pointing responses to a second set of target stimuli (i.e., to the relative location of a target beacon according to the signaled spatial perspective of the self vs. two others). The test for derivation was whether the stimuli that had directly acquired contextual control over deictic perspective-taking during training would spontaneously exert contextual control over figurine discrimination relative to the spatial perspective of the two others. That is, passing the test for derivation required participants to infer that the others would "report what they were seeing" the same way that the self would if the self were in their position, suggesting coordination of the self and others. Seven of the eight participants exhibited the intended derivation of the others' "true beliefs," confirming successful relational triangulation perspective-taking protocol configuration for this purpose.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2017 · doi:10.1002/jeab.291