2.3. Design

A between subjects design was used to assess the effects of different perspective-taking protocol on the percentage of correct responses by both relational complexity and relation-type. The independent variable was made up of different formats of presentation deictic frames and it was made up of three levels (Condition 1–3 explained below). The measurement variables were performance on relational complexity, on relation-type and number of repetitions of trials.

2.4.2. Conditions 1-2

2.4.3. Condition 3

Barnes-Holmes protocol, but using other stimuli.

Condition 1 and Condition 2 were similar to the protocol used in the pretest procedure, but now a range of visual aids were employed to facilitate responding to all of the tasks contained within the protocol. Nevertheless, the actual locations of the visual aids remain fixed in reversed and double reversed trials. For example, if the experimenter said "I am sitting here on the red sofa and you are sitting there on the white sofa", the experimenter had a picture of a red sofa and the participant had a picture of a white sofa. On other hand, if the experimenter said during a reversed trial "if I were you and you were me", the pictures did not change. These items included; two identically sized, differently colored pencils (one blue and one orange); two pictures of sofas (one red and one white); a picture of a pair of scissors; and a picture of a radio. It should be noted that the items were different to the pretest protocol (i.e., red and white sofas vs. black and blue chair). The purpose was to keep the same format as the

Assessing Perspective-Taking in Children through Different Formats of Deictic Framing Protocol

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74539

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Condition 2 was identical to Condition 1, but the length for Condition 2 was twice that of Condition 1, that is, 18 trials in Conditions 1 and 36 trials in Condition 2. This was done since in Condition 2 the two questions per trial were presented as separate trials. According to Lovett and Rehfeldt [22] and Weil et al. [14], the present study explored the hypothesis that a correct response to the first question in a trial could serve as a discriminative stimulus and facilitate a correct response on the second question of that trial. To control the second response and ensure that participants were responding according to the appropriate deictic relation for all questions, in Condition 2 the questions were presented as separate trials. However, in both Condition 1 and Condition 2 a correct response to a trial required that the participant answered both questions correctly. The sequential order of the last 18 trials in Condition 2 was the same as the first 18 trials. During sessions of Conditions 2, participants were given a

In contrast to Condition 1 and 2, in the protocol used in Condition 3, most of the trials did not necessarily include the actual words I-you, here-there, and now-then. An example of trial used in this Condition was as follows: "Last Sunday Julian was buying chewing-gum at the sweet shop and this morning he is cutting figures in the classroom. If this morning was last Sunday and if the classroom was the sweet shop, where would he be this morning?" (Full protocol may be obtained by writing to the principal author). As discussed by different authors [4, 6, 20], the terms I-you, here-there, and now-then refer to relational frames that must be functionally and not formally defined. Many phrases common in our daily life often include or replace words coordinated with particular individuals, places, and times (e.g., "It is 2 o'clock and I am eating [here and now], and Anne [you] is still in the school" [there and now]) [23]. From an RFT point of view, "Anne" or "she" may be functionally equivalent to "you" and "the school" may be functionally equivalent to "there." Furthermore, according to Vilardaga et al. [20], in Condition 3 not a single trial used the same content as any other trial. In other words, each trial used

break of 5 minutes after each 15 minutes of testing (or earlier if requested).
