July 29, 2015

July 29, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

 

I had a wonderful conversation with my friend of mine. He uses my Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) samples and instructed one of his students to let a baby listen to them. From a first impression, it looked as if the baby showed a positive response to SVB and a negative response to NVB. This is a good first result, although we may need to control confounding variables.   

We want to collect data on about 40 babies. If many respond similarly to SVB and NVB, we can conclude that humans have an innate response to how we sound. The samples my friend's student is using recordings of my voice. On the SVB samples, I speak calmly and soothingly, but on the NVB samples, I speak forcefully and loudly. The 3 months old baby doesn’t have language and I speak Dutch on the samples and the baby grows up in a Spanish verbal community, so it only responds to my sound. 

Our hypothesis is that most babies will have an orienting response to the SVB sample, because the sound of my voice is an appetitive stimulus; and most babies will show a startle response, a fear response, when they hear the NVB sample on which my voice functions as an noxious stimulus. 

At such an early age these are still unconditioned responses, but as the exposure to these sounds continues, they become conditioned responses, as these sounds will be paired with other stimuli, which might be within the skin or outside the skin and which occur at the same time. 

Certain physiological experiences occurring within the skin are predicted to lead to immediate escape and avoidance behaviors when they are perceived as aversive, while others would lead to approach behaviors. Similarly, other stimuli, which are occurring outside the skin in the environment, such as visual stimuli, will also become paired with the auditory stimuli and will also trigger escape, avoidance or approach behaviors. This conditioning process is believed to set the stage for more SVB or NVB.