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The Referential Process (RP) has three functions or processes, called Arousal, Symbolizing, and Reflecting/Reorganizing. Taken together, these provide a framework within which to address the question: how do people connect nonverbal experience and verbal forms. The purpose of this paper is to describe the Discourse Attributes Analysis Program (DAAP), which uses certain dictionaries or word lists to produce measures that model the referential process functions. These dictionaries are also described. The referential process may occur in any type of discourse context and the DAAP computer system may be applied to any type of verbal data. The focus in this paper is on transcripts of psychotherapy sessions. DAAP provides numeric and graphic data at several levels of discourse including word-by-word data concerning dictionary matches; average data for each turn of speech; average data for each speaker for each session; numeric data and graphic images for each session; and overall session data for each treatment. Graphic images of the ebb and flow of these computer generated functions of the referential process over the course of a therapy session are presented and interpreted. There are also discussions of new relational measures, as well as the referential process data base, which currently contains numerical data for 22 treatments, and presentations of several applications.

The articles in this issue include experimental research and clinical studies on the bidirectional process of connecting experience and words, which we term the Referential Process (RP). These concluding notes focus on new questions and new directions for research. Studies now under way include characterization and measurement of the Arousal function of the referential process, which involves how people talk when the connection to specific ideas is not yet fully developed, and new research on paralinguistic features of interpersonal communication. Further work in these areas will involve automatic transcription technology to incorporate pitch, rate of speech and loudness, as well as development of a Time-DAAP program to enable such assessment. Research is also needed to investigate the relationship between language and underlying physiological and neurological mechanisms. These relationships can be examined using physiological measures such as galvanic skin response (GSR) and changes in heart rate and respiration. While fMRI scans are not compatible with tasks requiring speech production, fMRI compatible tablet systems are available for writing tasks. Participants may also be scanned while reading literary passages that show differences in RP functions. A major goal of our research program is the application of RP measures in large scale treatment efficacy and effectiveness studies evaluating particular treatment forms. The computerized referential process procedures have the potential to study whole trajectories of large numbers of treatments; and also to identify important turning points within treatments and within sessions. The interpretation of these measures in the context of a systematic theory of treatment process has the value of enabling results that are not only statistically powerful but clinically significant as well. Other potential areas of study include application of the language measures in large scale studies of political, religious and literary discourse.