July 8, 2014

July 8, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

There is always something to write about and when whatever catches this writer’s attention is written about, this makes this writer feel good. It is simply a matter of paying attention to whatever asks his attention. The words, which are used to describe this process don’t need to be part of a big vocabulary, because the use of one’s words is now a function of the verbal exploration of one’s nonverbal experience. In this way, this writer has found that Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) only occurs when there is a match between what one experiences non-verbally and what one says verbally.  When, by contrast, one’s words don’t clarify what one feels, when feelings are diminished instead of enhanced by what one says, then one will be producing Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).    

The discovery that there can be a match between what one says and how one says it is a behavioral cusp, which makes many other behaviors possible.  Like a musician, who is automatically reinforced by the music he or she is playing, one can feel reinforced by how one speaks. Such automatic reinforcement only becomes part of one’s behavioral repertoire if there was a situation, or rather, if there were many situations, in which this behavior was reinforced, by others. 

So, the musician, who was reinforced multiple times for the music that he or she was playing for others, can sit by him or herself and enjoy playing his or her instrument, because he or she knows that others would like it as much as he or she likes it him or herself. In the same way, a speaker can say things to him or herself, because it has been reinforced by others multiple times.  Even when the speaker only speaks with him or herself, the speaker experiences what and how he or she speaks as reinforcing, because he or she can predict that what and how he or she speaks will be reinforced. The musician hones his or her skills by practicing his or her instrument by him or herself and after such practice he or she gets together to first practice and then perform with the other musicians. 

Although a similar process is possible with spoken communication, nobody instructs us to diligently talk with ourselves by ourselves, nobody urges us to practice the way we speak. This is what this author wants the reader to do. This text can be used by the reader to read out loud, so that the reader can explore what it is like listen to him or herself while he or she speaks. When the reader reads these words, he or she can listen to the sound of his or her voice. Nothing else is needed. This allows the reader to experience the congruence between what he or she says and how he or she is saying it. Since the what, in the case of the musician, the music score, is provided and since these written words are given to the reader, who is invited by this writer to become a speaker, in the same way as the Mozart music score invites the musician to learn how to play his music, the reader can now focus his or her attention on how he or she sounds. Similarly to the music, which is read, rehearsed and performed by a musician, the reader doesn’t need to think about these words, which were composed so that he or she could hear him or herself. 

When people learn a language they are reinforced for using the right sounds as well as the right words. The ubiquity of NVB is a consequence of the fact that we are more reinforced for what we say than for how we say it. This text takes the reader into how he or she says what he or she says. Now the reader begins to reinforce him or herself and the reader experiences that automatic reinforcement builds on earlier circumstances in which self-listening was possible. It is impossible to learn a language without paying attention to how it sounds.  

Because we are fixated on what is said or written, we have become alienated from what happens when what is said is said and when what is written is read. This writer has written this text so that the reader, while reading, can loosen his or her fixation on words. The reader has a sound and the reader can speak with that sound, which is only produced when the reader hears him or herself.  When the reader experiences his or her voice as sounding good, he or she produces SVB.