November 3, 2014

November 3, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

This writer wishes to inform the reader about Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), which is a different way of talking than Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), the way of communicating which we are all familiar with. By reading these texts out loud, the reader engages in a multiple baseline experiment. This makes him or her realize, that he or she is simultaneously the verbalizer as well as the mediator. This particular design is chosen because it demonstrates how the treatment this writer is proposing will lead to an increase of positive emotional behaviors, which the reader doesn’t want to reverse. 

NVB is considered the problem behavior and SVB is the replacement behavior. Once NVB is replaced by SVB, it is important to continue with SVB and to investigate where it leads. SVB is achieved because the reader reads out loud and listens to him or herself while he or she speaks. The calming sound of one’s own voice has an automatic reinforcing effect, which is noticed due to the process of self-listening. As the reader observes the tangible physiological effects of this feed-back mechanism, he or she is bound to notice that each time he or she returns to NVB, he or she in effect reverses the treatment. The reader finds, but will have to continue to verify as often as is needed, that each time he or she inadvertently produces NVB, he or she is no longer listening to him or herself while he or she speaks. The intervention: self-listening, is a methodologically sound verification of whether SVB occurs or not. In the absence of SVB, the reader will always produce NVB and each time the reader catches him or herself not listening, self-listening will re-establish SVB.

In a multiple baseline design the baseline becomes broader and broader, because each phase, that is, each moment of self-listening, sets the stage for the next phase. As one catches oneself more often, one realizes, while shifting back and forth between SVB and NVB, that the sound of one’s voice changes. No matter how often one forgets to implement the intervention, each time one is again self-listening, one is once more experiencing SVB. This tells us that NVB is always only noticed after it has occurred, while SVB only happens consciously. SVB makes us more and more conscious, while NVB makes us more and more mechanical. We are unconscious because of NVB, because of how we talk, and we become and stay conscious because of SVB, a new way of talking. We compare again and again what happens to our voice, while we are and while we weren’t self-listening. This exploration answers our control question: how does our tone of voice effect our communication?