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    Holding on to our functional roots when exploring new intellectual islands: A voyage through implicit cognition research


    Hughes, Sean, Barnes-Holmes, Dermot and Vahey, Nigel A. (2012) Holding on to our functional roots when exploring new intellectual islands: A voyage through implicit cognition research. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 1 (1-2). pp. 17-38. ISSN 2212-1447

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    Abstract

    Throughout much of the past two decades, contextual behavioral science has been applied to a diverse spectrum of psychological phenomena. This intellectual voyage into uncharted waters has brought with it exciting new developments at the methodological and theoretical levels as well as increased contact with other philosophical frameworks such as mechanism. This expansion into new territories requires that the researcher carefully walk a tight-rope between different intellectual traditions — an activity that is subject to several challenges and dangers. In the following paper we provide a detailed map on how to navigate such pitfalls in the study of implicit cognition. We open with a comprehensive overview of the core assumptions and analytic strategies upon which the cognitive (mechanistic) and functional (contextual) traditions have been built. As we shall see, both traditions have sought to understand, predict, and in some cases influence, behavior using radically different conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools. The Relational Elaboration and Coherence (REC) model as well as the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) are offered as examples of how researchers can explore the domain of implicit cognition from a purely functional perspective. Finally, we examine the possibility that although the cognitive and functional frameworks operate at two independent levels of analysis each may be mutually informed by the work of the other, to the benefit of both
    Item Type: Article
    Keywords: Implicit cognition; Functional contextualism; IRAP; REC model;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Science and Engineering > Psychology
    Item ID: 5036
    Identification Number: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2012.09.003
    Depositing User: Prof. Dermot Barnes-Holmes
    Date Deposited: 17 Jun 2014 15:19
    Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science
    Publisher: Elsevier
    Refereed: Yes
    Related URLs:
    URI: https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/5036
    Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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