March 6, 2015
Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer
Dear Reader,
Today, I address the importance of what is known
as automatic reinforcement in the
conditioning of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). We learn to speak our language
by producing similar sounds as those from our verbal community. Initially, we
were reinforced by others, but as we grew older, we became more capable of reinforcing ourselves. Our dialect is produced by response topographies that bring forth similar sounds. The difference between
SVB and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) is best described as a difference
in sound.
Like Chinese and Italian, SVB and NVB sound different. Only when we listen to how we sound while we speak, can we acknowledge
that everyone, regardless of language or dialect, produces and
experiences instances of SVB and NVB. Most us find NVB, not SVB, automatically reinforcing, because our behavioral history
has been mainly with NVB. This is why we worry so much or think a lot about negative
things. We didn’t learn to speak the language of happiness. We are all somewhat delayed
in the vocalization of our positive emotions. How do human beings catch up with
this gigantic, world-wide communication delay? Behaviorists have known for a long
time that language is not learned through “explicit shaping of every verbal
response by teachers or parents and that such instruction comprises only a
small portion of the relevant reinforcement histories in a person’s history”
(Yoon & Bennett, 2000).
The role of indirect
reinforcement contingencies is of crucial importance for what still needs
to happen in human relationship: generalization of positive emotions. Over the
course of development, our verbal behavior moves from an overt to a covert level.
That is, what was first overtly reinforced by others later becomes covertly or
automatically reinforced by the individual, who in this process perceives him
or herself as both the speaker and
the listener.
Behaviorist research has gathered empirical evidence for
B.F. Skinner’s position that the strengthening of verbal operants is more
parsimoniously explained by automatic reinforcement than by some imaginary
language acquisition device. In the same
way that languages were learned and didn’t need any further explicit
reinforcement from the members of the verbal community, most of us unfortunately automatically reinforce NVB, the language of negative emotions.
Only what was part of our individual history of
reinforcement could generalize by means of automatic reinforcement. “A response might serve a reinforcing
function if the stimulus properties of
that response are familiar, that is, if they already exert discriminative control
over the individual's behavior” (italics added)(Yoon & Bennett, 2000). Most
of us are far more familiar with the communication of negative than positive
emotions. Communication of negative emotions was more often reinforced. This familiarity is now causing us to have NVB, not SVB. As it conforms to the
existing practices of our verbal community, NVB is now automatically
reinforced. Thus, we relish in misery as certain sounds exert discriminative control over our vocal
verbal behavior.
People always described me as enthusiastic. However, I often felt upset about the
fact that my happiness was not
reinforced by them. In spite of this lack of reinforcement, I have
continued to feel happy and positive about my life. Apparently, I must have
received positive reinforcement early on. There is no other
explanation for the ability to deal with the amount of rejection that I have endured
my entire life.
For years, I was
searching for ways to acknowledge myself, because I didn’t receive the kind of
attention from others that I wanted. I was so frustrated about how others were talking with me
that I decided to talk with myself. From the moment I began talking with
myself, I became fully capable of giving myself something which others apparently weren’t
able to give. Even though I kept crying and complaining about it endlessly, I
was able to give it to myself. I became my own listener and
reinforced what I said to myself.
As I began
demonstrating SVB to others, they found, with my support, that they too could
listen to and reinforce themselves. I haven’t met anyone who wasn’t able to
learn it. This is not to say that everyone who was taught by me has learned it. Most
people haven’t learned it and weren’t able to learn it, because they didn’t continue
long enough. Only those who stuck it out with me long enough have learned it. I should say
only those who stick it out with themselves
were capable of learning it. Indeed, those who can stick it out with me, stick
it out with themselves. When you speak with your own natural sound, the reinforcing
event which follows is that you will be your authentic self and your sound will then become
a conditioned reinforcer.
Only
behaviorism can inform us about how behavior is stimulated, shaped and
maintained by our environment. Only behaviorism doesn’t make a big deal about
that part of the environment, which exists inside
of our skin, which, according to ignorant people causes our
behavior. The artificial distinction which divides the natural world, existing inside or outside our skin, involves
all fictions about ourselves and is maintained by our way of talking, NVB.
Communication
of the oneness of the environment inside and outside our skin requires SVB and
cannot be accomplished by NVB. When the oneness of the environment is simultaneously perceived
from a first-person perspective and from a third-person perspective and is talked about in NVB manner, people can’t feel it or experience it. In NVB they will refer to the incongruence or the negative feelings, which are generated by the mismatch
between what a person says and how he or she says it. If, on the other hand,
oneness of what is inside and outside of the skin is expressed in a SVB manner,
people will acknowledge their positive interoceptive experiences, which can only occur
when a speaker’s verbal and nonverbal behaviors are and remain aligned.
As we seldom have interactions in which we listen to how we sound, we have remained unaware about the extent to which our verbal behavior was based on
negative emotions. Vocal verbal behavior in which we are unaware of how we
sound is NVB. No matter how much our NVB has been
and continues to be reinforced, the automatic reinforcement, which also occurs, is always bound to be contradicted by our own proprioceptive
experiences. The person involved in NVB may say, verbally, that he or she is not upset, when in fact,
non-verbally, he or she is upset. Although he or she may be anxious, stressed or sad, he or she may maintain a façade of calmness, control and
positivity. It is only by listening to the sound of someone’s voice that we can
accurately discern the difference between positive and negative emotions. To the extent that
we have been conditioned by NVB, we accept vocal verbal behavior as
positive, when it is negative. NVB can create the illusion
that we can do away with reality, but that reality is there and can be
measured by our heart rate, skin response, sympathetic response and muscle tone.
The most
fundamental discovery for someone, who, like myself, was mainly conditioned by
NVB, is not that it is still possible
to engage in SVB, but that after sufficient exposure and exploration, SVB will
be automatically reinforced. This phenomenon takes place within our own skin as
a gradual change of our neural behavior. As a consequence of SVB, we slowly get
better at avoiding NVB. I had to escape often from noxious stimuli in the past,
but as the years went by, I became better at not getting closer to noxious
stimuli and avoiding them. Decrease of escape behaviors went
hand in hand with a decrease of approach behavior. Many noxious stimuli, once
discriminated as such, are no longer approached and, consequently, don’t need
to be escaped from. The stimuli which one approaches with SVB are comparable to the
nonverbal stimuli that a blind person approaches by simply avoiding obstacles. Like a blind person, I experiences the freedom
from obstructed movements.
Until I found behaviorism I was terrible confused about the persistence with
which I tried to pursue my own well-being. It often seemed to me that
what was most beneficial was also my biggest problem. As long as I
didn’t have enough exposure to stimuli which are produced by SVB and
believed that I could only achieve those, by creating SVB with others, my
attention was, as is the case with everyone who is involved in NVB, drawn
outward, to others.
Automatic
reinforcement is different from direct reinforcement, because in the latter the
reinforcement is delivered by others, but in the former, the mediation by
another person is not needed. A good
example of automatic reinforcement is a musician, who loves the sound of his or
her instrument so much that he or she keeps practicing and getting better and
better. I was and still am a singer. My instrument consists of my vocal cords
and by listening to myself I found SVB and behaviorism. However, many people
are not that lucky and go insane while listening to themselves. They don’t know
that they are trying to listen to their own sound and so they get carried
away by what they say.
Fixation on
the verbal, like outward orientation, is another criterion of NVB. It changes
the sound of our voice. The third reason our voice changes from sounding
reinforcing to sounding punishing, is struggle, which I was previously describing. How could I be right and everyone be wrong? I was
right about SVB and nobody else but me had come up with the idea of NVB. I was right
about NVB too. Not only I, but millions of others too, who in spite of struggle,
have somehow survived the negative contingencies of NVB.
It is
astounding what happens when people, who have known mainly NVB, engage for an
extended period of time in SVB. First, they are amazed that it is even possible. Then, as
they explore this new way of communicating which is without aversive
stimulation, a delightful process can be observed, which is similar to what
happens in the development of a two year old. Behaviorists acknowledge that “contingencies are
inadequate to explain the rapidity with which complex verbal constructions are
acquired” (Yoon & Bennett, 2000). Under negative circumstances, however,
our verbal development will be stunted and although we may still have acquired
our language, if we haven’t been in the positive and supportive environments in which our emotions could be
accurately described and thus be validated, we may live our entire lives without having this aspect of
vocal verbal behavior fulfilled. As we have only experienced very brief, haphazard moments of SVB, a sensitive person’s insistence on what is
automatically reinforcing, can easily be explained as mania, depression or schizophrenia.
In doing so, we have accepted NVB as normal and our plea and longing for SVB has been construed as
abnormal.
Certainly, a
different automatic reinforcement results from SVB than NVB. The former
supports our mental health, but the latter breads psychopathology. Yes, our way of
talking literally drives some people insane, especially those who are more sensitive than others. Much of what goes on in the name of our spoken communication is pure insanity and yet there continues to be massive
support for it. The automatically reinforcing properties of our verbal behavior are
maintained by how we sound. In an safe environment, in which we are stimulated to
listen to ourselves while we speak,
the shift from NVB to SVB will happen effortlessly. Once we have SVB, we
overcome our communication delay as our speaking and listening behavior will become synchronized.
