August 2, 2014

August 2, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

This writer’s verbal behavior can only make sense if he reads what he is writing. Similarly, a speaker’s verbal behavior only makes sense if he or she is listening to him or herself while he or she speaks. The reader continues to play an important role in the maintenance of this writer’s writing and only in the presence of a listener is reinforcement of his speech likely. If, however, the reader has nothing in common with the readers who were involved in the conditioning process of this writer, if the reader, for instance, doesn’t understand English, but only reads Russian, then that reader is incapable of reinforcing this writer. Likewise, if the characteristics of the listener were absent or didn’t play any role in the conditioning history of the speaker, such a listener will not reinforce the speaker.  

It makes no sense to speak Russian to someone who doesn’t understand it and it makes no sense to write in Russian for a reader who has no history with that language. In other words, our verbal behavior is evoked, shaped and maintained by our environment. Only audience members of the Russian verbal community can provide the reinforcing stimuli which make speaking and writing of the Russian language possible.  Our verbal repertoire is reinforced and selected by its consequences. Only if the speaker speaks in Russian, only if the writer writes in Russian, will the Russian verbal Community be reinforcing the speaker or the writer.

For Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) to survive in a person’s verbal repertoire and for it to reliably occur, it must, like any other language, be reinforced by other members of that verbal community. Only SVB communicators can mediate the consequences which will keep it going. However, since the operant perspective, which is a functional, scientific account of behavior, is heavily opposed by the widespread belief that individuals cause their own behavior, there is only very little reinforcement for SVB. Similarly to English being spoken as an international language, Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) is spoken almost everywhere. NVB isn’t magically occurring, it is reinforced every day by all those who know how to speak it.  

Many native languages have disappeared because they were no longer reinforced. Those who want to continue the tradition inherent in their language must make extra effort to speak it and to practice it. Since many phenomena distract us from our spoken communication, understanding of our relationship is getting less and less attention. NVB expresses our imaginary isolation and loneliness. Although much of our social behavior is innate and SVB is essential for every culture, it is mostly punished and extinguished, while NVB is reinforced. The only way for us to keep SVB alive is by automatic reinforcement. We must learn to listen to ourselves while we speak, because others, for backward cultural reasons, often can’t reinforce us.