October 6, 2014

October 6, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

This author spoke with his friend and colleague Arturo from Bogota, Colombia. Arturo asked him how he measures Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB)? Since this writer organized a SVB seminar at the local library, there was plenty to talk about. 

Thinking about it today, this author, as the mediator, realizes that his attention simultaneously goes to the nonverbal as well as the verbal behavior of the verbalizer. In Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), the mediator’s attention  goes to the nonverbal or to the verbal behavior of the verbalizer, but it never goes to both simultaneously. The attention of the mediator only goes to both the verbal and the nonverbal behavior of the speaker during SVB. To the extent that SVB can't occur very often, because environments are fear-inducing,  the mediator is conditioned to reinforce NVB and to engage him or herself NVB as a speaker whenever he or she has the chance to. 

 

The attention of the mediator can only simultaneously go to the verbalizer’s nonverbal and verbal behavior, if the verbalizer’s attention simultaneously goes to his or her nonverbal as well as his or her verbal behavior. This only occurs in SVB. Since this is most of the time not the case and since the verbalizer’s attention is most of the time focused on his or her nonverbal behavior or on his or her verbal behavior, or, and this makes things complex very quickly, since the verbalizer’s attention often switches back and forth between the nonverbal and the verbal (due to the reinforcing effects – which can also be nonverbal as well as verbal – that  are produced by the mediator), the verbalizer is very often unable to simultaneously keep his or her attention focused on both his or her nonverbal and verbal behavior. 

Even though the verbalizer may believe to be very verbal, he or she is in fact very often having a nonverbal effect on the mediator. Even when mediators are allowed to become verbalizers (which is also often not at all the case), they are more likely to respond verbally to something which has impacted them nonverbally or visa versa. 

As the speaker's verbal responses often inaccurately describe nonverbal impact, the conversation goes nowhere because the words obfuscate what the communicators experience while they speak. This is NVB. During SVB, by contrast, communicators stay in touch with themselves and with each other non-verbally as well as verbally .