November 6, 2014

November 6, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

Again and again and again, this writer is reinforced for his Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). Everyone who is reinforcing him is also simultaneously reinforcing him or herself. SVB is based on mutual reinforcement. SVB is the interaction in which we meet each other in peace, respect and sensitivity. Many people think that this is impossible, but this writer knows that it is possible. 

Tomorrow it is full moon. This writer thinks about his friend, far away in the Netherlands, because with him he used to meditate, at night, in a park. They sat near a pond, underneath a big tree. The full moon’s night was cool and warm and it was summer. Sometimes a fox would come and other times an owl was singing. They sat there together for hours and wouldn’t say a word. They met and left in silence and all that was heard were their footsteps on the path. 

This friend is someone with whom this writer could be silent. He appreciated the silence as much as this writer did. Yet, they also always talked a lot. They talked sometimes for as long as the whole afternoon, but when they meditated, they experienced and enjoyed their silence together. They were never serious about it and they would laugh a lot, because there was so much to laugh about. One time, a big branch broke off  and fell with a thundering sound right next to them on the ground. His friend and this writer opened their eyes, smiled at each other and continued to meditate. 

When this writer discovered SVB, he spoke about it with his friend, who immediately acknowledged him and said “yes this is great, keep going.” Because of his approval this writer went on with it, although most people rejected him. His friend came to his early seminars and his presence was a steady ingredient of what this writer had to offer. Their joy in meditation, as well as their way of expressing it, created a peculiar match. 

This writer got such a kick out of his friend. They would walk together around town, they would go to the beach, visit churches and musea, meet in the park in the dark by the light of candle, drink tea and visit all sorts of people. They would either talk or be quiet and alert, but they would never fight or argue and this writer was so happy to always be able to say what he meant and felt. Together with his friend he discovered something about their communication and they were exploring and sharing it. Even when his friend was not up to it, he would urge this writer to continue. It was because of his friend's trust that this writer, in spite of much rejection, was able to keep going with SVB.

In his book “Learning” (2013, p.2) Catania writes about the language of learning and behavior. He makes, as others have done, a big deal about words and about how learning is defined, but he also agrees that “there are no satisfactory definitions.” This author agrees with his reasoning that “we can’t have an adequate neuroscience of learning unless we understand its behavioral properties.” To know what happens during learning, neuroscientists must, at least temporarily, be willing to let go of their physiological focus. To understand learning, they must behave like behaviorologists and focus on the behavioral properties of learning. However, more than a change of words is needed, before neuroscientist will begin to refer to the facts about learning and become capable of addressing why individuals behave the way they do. If “behavior will always be our starting point” not only  behavioral properties of what we say are important, but also how we say it must be considered.

As Catania stated, to understand verbal learning, we first need to know how nonverbal learning works. This is where the Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB)/ Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) distinction comes in. Only during SVB are the verbalizer and the mediator experiencing the alignment of verbal and nonverbal expressions. Only in SVB will communicators be able to identify and let go of their verbal entrapment. Although it is true “every day vocabulary doesn’t equip us well for discussing” why some of us became behaviorologists, while others couldn't, we need an entirely different way of communicating to answer why most of us think we can “stay out of trouble by telling lies.” 

According to this writer, behaviorology requires that we change our way of talking from NVB to SVB. NVB is our old way of talking in which we ignore our nonverbal learning, because we don't describe is accurately during our conversations. SVB must permanently replace NVB; for SVB to be established, NVB must be extinguished. Each time we go back to NVB, it will continue to interfere with our new way of talking. SVB is fundamentally different from NVB in the same way that behaviorological terminology differs from physiological terminology. Catania writes “it will demand new ways of looking at familiar phenomena.” He refers here to NVB, in which we coerce each other. In SVB we don't demand, but we will listen rather than look at familiar phenomena in a new way, because we have attained a new way of communicating. SVB will completely change our perception.