Relational frame
The hierarchical frame
Relating stimuli as member and category, part and whole.
What it looks like
Hierarchical relations are asymmetric and non-reversible in an instructive way. Every spaniel is a dog, but not every dog is a spaniel, and learners have to respond to that asymmetry rather than treating the relation as coordination.
Hierarchical framing also supports inheritance: properties attached to the class transfer to members without direct teaching. Told that all mammals are warm-blooded and that a pangolin is a mammal, a learner derives the property.
Worked example
A learner is taught that a robin is a bird and a bird is an animal. They derive that a robin is an animal, and that not all animals are robins.
If they are then told that animals need food, the property transfers down the hierarchy to robins without any trial teaching that specific fact.
How to build a lesson for this frame
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Establish class membership
Teach several members into one class before introducing a second class, so the class itself has stimulus control.
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Train the asymmetry explicitly
Probe both directions and reinforce correct rejection of the over-general reverse relation. This is the step most often skipped.
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Probe inheritance
Attach a novel property to the class and test whether it transfers to untrained members.
Common pitfalls
Treating hierarchy as coordination is the dominant error, and it shows up as a learner who agrees that all dogs are spaniels. Reversal probes catch it. Building classes with only one member is the other common problem: the class never acquires independent control.
Build a hierarchical lesson
Draft the trial structure in RFT App, then edit it into the program you actually want.
See how it worksOther relational frames
Common questions
- What is a hierarchical frame?
- A relational frame relating stimuli as member and class or part and whole, such as a spaniel being a kind of dog.
- How is hierarchical framing different from coordination?
- Coordination is symmetric: A equals B means B equals A. Hierarchy is asymmetric: every spaniel is a dog, but not every dog is a spaniel.