Exposure to Progressive Muscle Relaxation Leads to Enhanced Performance on Derived Relational Responding Tasks

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that sleep significantly enhances the emergence of 2- but not 1-node derived relations following a 12-hour period. The present study investigated whether a highly truncated relaxation intervention in the form of an 11-minute Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) exercise would effect a similar enhancement in derived relational responding. Thirty-five participants were exposed to matching-to-sample training to establish stable baseline relations, from which 1- and 2-node equivalence relations were predicted. Participants were then randomly assigned to either a PMR group or one of two control groups; Simple or Conditional Discrimination task, followed by an equivalence test. Exposure to PMR resulted in significantly more accurate responses for both 1- and 2-node derived relations. The immediate and significant effects of the brief intervention on derived relational responding support the view that relaxation improves cognitive performance as indexed by the emergence of derived equivalence responding.