July 26, 2016

July 26, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Behavioral Engineer

Dear Reader, 

This is my forty-first and last response to “Epistemological Barriers to Radical Behaviorism” by Donohue et al. (1998). As their analysis is incorrect, “the burden of proof” lies not with radical behaviorist. During Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) speakers always try to prove their point, but in Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), there is nothing to prove and therefore there is no “burden of proof” either. Of course we need to demonstrate validity and reliability of our scientific explorations and measurements.

Words like “burden of proof” refer to our history of NVB. Once we know about the SVB/NVB distinction, we realize we have unnecessarily burdened ourselves and each other. What are these authors really saying when they write “The student should be forewarned that this is an approach that challenges many popular beliefs and may initially seem strange?” They are basically justifying that students are going to have to suffer their NVB. They seem to be predicting their own NVB.

Anyone who knows about SVB would never give such a warning. To the contrary, they would stimulate students with the positive consequences of their learning experiences. The authors end their paper by stating “Finally, because it is a principle of good pedagogy that the teacher contact the student at the place at which the student begins, radical behaviorists, in order to teach more effectively, should recognize that folk psychology presents these epistemological barriers to the student

and should seek ways to address these barriers.” This sentence shows these authors misunderstand the “place at which the student begins.”

Students, like everyone else, have a history of high rates of NVB and low rates of SVB. When a student listens to a teacher, what contacts them directly is the sound of his or her voice; words have an indirect effect. The teacher’s voice either induces positive or negative affect in the student. In the former, the student will effortlessly learn about behaviorism, but in the latter, the student, in spite of all his or her effort, will not be able to learn. Without SVB student’s aren’t learning.