April 13, 2015

April 13, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

My wife and I worked very hard in our yard yesterday and things are finally beginning to come together. I wheel barreled in a lot of gravel, which is now covering the ground. We made a nice place to sit and got ourselves two blue comfortable chairs. Also, I made a little bridge that crosses the creek bed. It was quite an ordeal to saw that wood, because my saw was blunt. We need to get a new one. I asked the neighbor’s saw and got it done. The bridge still needs to be stabilized. Our gardener can get us some free bigger rocks from somewhere. That would look great. We are going to plant some grasses, a tree, a bush and some agaves. 

When Bonnie disagrees with me, she raises her voice and speaks in a tone I don’t like. Since we have to decide many things together about our garden, we have moments of irritation. This is part of doing something together. Our disagreements are always settled quickly. Under such circumstances instances of Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) are replaced by instances of Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). I enjoy doing projects with her and it is such a pleasure to see her work at the vegetable garden. She planted tomatoes, eggplant, okra, basil, squash and cantaloupe. She is careful and precise, but sometimes she is wrong or refuses to see to see things my way. I have given in to her many times, but with some things I want to have my way. She first didn’t want to have agaves, but after repeated requests consented to have them. There are still some plants and grasses that need to be bought and planted, but the big rearrangements of the yard have all been done. It looks beautiful.

Working in the yard, evening out and raking gravel and sawing wood for the bridge, are neuromuscular behaviors, but thinking about Bonnie, sometimes upset about her demanding ways, is neural behavior. Thus, consciousness is considered by behaviorologists as neural behavior. A person doesn’t do anything physical while being conscious. To be conscious, our body doesn’t need to be involved in action and no neuromuscular behavior is needed.

Writing is a public response, but thoughts that precede this writing are a private response. Reporting these responses involves overt verbal behavior. Although only I currently have access to this writing, in principle, many may have access to it. However, only I can have access to my thoughts, that is, only a public of one has access to stimuli of private speech. While learning about SVB it is important that we don’t revert to the use of agential terms.


We are talking about an auditory stimulus, a sound, someone’s voice, “a form of energy that affects our phonoreceptors, which produce aural responses, what, in agential terms, we call hearing” (Ledoux, 2014). Before someone’s sound is affecting us, that is, “before a stimulus energy trace can affect a receptor, the energy trace must reach the necessary physiological threshold” (Ledoux, 2014). Sometimes we don’t hear someone, because they don’t talk loud enough. In that case, the stimulus can’t affect the receptor, as it is not strong enough to reach the threshold. At other times, we don’t hear someone, because we are not consciously listening. We are not paying attention to how they sound as our attention is only going to what they are saying. In the latter, a gating-mechanism seems to be at work. 

The person has the ability to perceive someone’s sound, but only if he or she pays attention to how this person sounds rather than to what this person is saying. Once this shift from what the person is saying to how the person sounds, which, by the way, both are overt responses, has been made, overt responses can and will be made by such a person, which involve few covert responses. In other words, in SVB, the conversation will be under stimulus control of the sound of our voice. You can compare it to driving which is under stimulus control of what is seen along the road. We don’t need to pay conscious attention to each of these stimuli as we habitually drive from point A to point B. Often we don’t even realize that we drove, because we were listening to the radio or we were having all sorts of thoughts. 

Driving safely, without having to consciously pay attention, is possible because our nonverbal driving behavior is under stimulus control of what we see. Our driving requires neither covert nor overt verbal behavior. A similar nonverbal process is possible when our vocal verbal behavior is under direct stimulus control of how we sound. In that case, it is because we can talk without having private speech that we will be able to have a good conversation. When our driving behavior is not under direct stimulus control of our seeing behavior, we would not be able to drive very safely. Our daydreaming or private speech will then be so distracting that it leads to accidents. Similarly, if during our vocal verbal behavior, that is, during Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), our talking is not and cannot be under direct stimulus control our sound, all sorts of ‘accidents’ may happen and we will be distracted.

In NVB, in which the speaker controls the behavior of the listener with an aversive contingency, the speaker’s voice causes raw-sensation behavior in the listener. This “first behavior” is a “covert behavior, in a chain that includes covert and then overt behavior” (Ledoux, 2014). It is important to understand here that raw-sensation behavior is elicited when a stimulus affects a receptor. If there is little or no verbal report involved, respondent sensory perception of reality is merely a simple awareness behavior. Only during SVB can we describe and express overtly and correctly the direct stimulus control exerted by listening behavior over our speaking behavior. 

What happens when auditory stimuli affect phono-receptors while we speak is comparable to what happens when visual stimuli affect photo-receptors while we drive. As long as driving behavior is under direct discriminative control of what we see, we don’t need to see what we see consciously. However, after we have been stopped by the police, because we broke the speed limit and had to show our papers and got a ticket, we will drive more consciously. Temporarily, our covert verbal behavior takes the place of direct stimulus control and we make sure that we don’t speed anymore. In a similar fashion, we can talk without having to think much about it, as long as we are not called out for anything that we say. When someone is disagreeing with us, rejecting us and making us stop talking, our attention suddenly shifts from nonverbal well-being to verbal stress. Initially, we were fine just talking and there was no need to be anxious or upset about the verbal, because we agreed and we understood, but because of NVB, we were disconnecting from the nonverbal and becoming imprisoned by the verbal.

April 12, 2015

April 12, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

 

Another successful seminar for the faculty of Butte College has taken place. Everybody stayed from beginning till end and they got it. When it was over, people were standing around talking about the seminar. They were clearly enjoying each other’s conversation. That is Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB).

The topic of the conference was “Social Responsibility”, but, we are, and I mean that literally, at best only just talking with ourselves. Full time faculty doesn’t care about the part time faculty. “Social Responsibility” is merely a catchy term, but the issue is, of course, the lack thereof, or rather the fact that we accept Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), which is not communication.

We are dealing with the fact that our vocal verbal behavior, which is a subset of verbal behavior, doesn’t get the reinforcement it requires. Simply stated, we all buy into the notion that what is written is more important than what is said. Although, at the end of the day we still need to talk with each other, conversation is made more and more impossible. It is possible, but only when the conditions to make it possible, such as this conference, are arranged. It is clear that we get this opportunity, to hold this conference, to make it seem as if we have been given something, but in reality, we are only tossed a few pieces of food and we remain hungry and eager.

The reason why people accept they are enslaved is because their behavior is elicited, not evoked. Another way of saying this is that they are and remain afraid. They want to keep their job and still hope somehow one day they will get full time employment. Only obedient slaves get full time employment and it is unlikely I will get it. However, my success with my students still makes me a good candidate.

My desire to become a full time faculty is not based on fear. To the contrary, my behavior is based on my knowledge about behaviorism, on my ability recognize and analyze aversive stimulation. I am not too overly busy trying to avoid or escape negative outcomes, that is not my cup of tea. I am interested in and propelled by the power of positive reinforcement. Stated differently, I am not interested in decreasing behavior, because I focus on increasing everyone’s SVB response. As SVB increases NVB will decrease. It will happen by itself and no one needs to do anything to decrease NVB. I am benefitted by this conference, which was visited by only a handful of part timers. They are not showing up, because they are not feeling reinforced.

  

I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, but all these so-called negotiations, all this so-called political organizing, is just more NVB. The issue is not whether we can increase “Social Responsibility.” The low turnout proves we can’t. The issue is whether we differentiate between SVB and NVB. We can and we did. Increase of SVB is based on our ability to discriminate between SVB and NVB. The conference was worth my while, because people have once again acknowledged the existence of this distinction.

An important aspect about verbal behavior is mediation of behavior by others. Our body mediates, or responds to, stimuli from inside and outside our skin. Walking to the building in which the conference is held, is a neuromuscular behavior. The question “Why do I walk to that building?” can have two answers. My behavior can be elicited or evoked. If I walk to that building, because I am frustrated about my status as a part time instructor, which means, I don’t have insurance and I don’t get paid for office hours and I am going to protest and demand my rights, then my behavior is elicited. If, on the other hand, on former conferences, I have enjoyed the interaction with my colleagues, because helping out and putting together the conference was great fun, made me feel validated and important, then my walking will be evoked. In the former, I have negative, in the latter, I have positive emotions. 

What I think or say to myself, while walking to that building, is also an elicited or an evoked behavior. Since it is witnessed by an audience of one, mediation of neural behavior occurs covertly. Unlike neuromuscular behavior, during my neural behavior there are no muscle contractions. During my neural behavior there are only neurons, bundles of neurons or cascades of neurons firing. Moreover, what I think or I feel is how my nervous system mediates my environment. There is no real difference between the environment and my neural behavior, which mediates my environment. The environment within my own skin is my neural behavior. In SVB, however, we become interested in the environment inside own skin, but in NVB, we remain preoccupied with the environment outside of our skin.

April 11, 2015

April 11, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

 

It is in the middle of the night and I just woke up from a dream. I was crying, because I was so happy that I finally got the fulltime job as a psychology instructor, the position I am currently applying for. However, my  boss was looking at me suspiciously. I felt uncomfortable. I wasn’t feeling grateful to him for giving me a full-time job as teacher and I felt judged by him for showing my emotions. My inability to say to this person that I didn’t like him was picked up by him. 

Today I give another seminar at the Faculty Conference Day. A while ago, I had received negative feedback about my seminar at the previous Faculty Conference. The criticism was I had been too repetitive and apparently had made some of the faculty feel as if they were students. It came as a shock that they decided to tell me about this months later, at our department meeting. It made me feel awkward and now that I am presenting today, I feel I have to be watchful not to step on anyone’s toes. I am concerned about how I am perceived as I apply for the full-time position.

It is natural I should feel that way, since there is such great competition for the this full-time position. It is nothing new to me to get negative feed-back about my seminar. I would like to have that full-time job very much and that is making me so worried. If I don’t get it, it will won't be the end of the world, even if they won’t interview me.

Writing down these thoughts and feelings clears my head. It amazes me how worked up I can get about this. Since I am convinced about my Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) teaching, I feel scrutinized and not sure if I will be hired with my revolutionary ideas. Let's face it, SVB cuts through all the crap. I am not supposed to say that or repeat that because it hurts certain people. It cannot and it should not be hidden that there is real human interaction.

What goes on in the name of human interaction is something else. If they don’t hire me, if they don’t even interview me, there is nothing I can do. All I can do is prepare myself as best as I can for my seminar and make it into a success. The theme of today is “Social Responsibility”. This topic was chosen because of our lack of communication. To me communication equals social responsibility. If we would have communication, we would have social responsibility. These are different names for the same thing. We are so often beating around the bush, because we are avoiding the real issue: what goes on in the name of spoken communication is not communication. Everyone is continuously buying into this, but I am not. I can’t deny what I know. 

Let the chips fall as they may. If I am accepted, I will be accepted for who I am. Each of my presentations has made clear I am not into any esoteric or political bullshit. I mean business when it comes to human interaction. My success as a teacher is due to SVB. I am responsible for conveying the knowledge I have gathered. There is no way back. It got me where I am. I stand for it and I am not crying about it anymore, like in my dream.

This is my midnight preparation for today’s presentation. I will point out that all sorts of things have become important, when in fact, everyone, just like me, is getting worked up about stuff, which is distracting from and replacing the real thing: communication. I will put it back on the map again. I have a world map hanging on the wall in my office. I put a sticky note on California saying: Communication. I came to this country with a mission: to spread my message of spoken communication and to change the way we communicate. 

I never knew it would be such an undertaking, but I am proud and satisfied with what I have achieved. The other day, I realized I was lucky to be let go from my full-time job as a caseworker with parolees after my probation period was over. Working with students is more reinforcing to me. Also, it was a blessing in disguise that I withdrew from my graduate study, because I would never have had the chance to study behaviorism the way I currently do. Furthermore, if we hadn’t returned to Chico, I would never have tasted what teaching at Butte College was like. My part-time job as psychology instructor is the best job I have ever had. This already is the peak of my career. Another important decision I finally was able to make since I got back to Chico was to stay away from my toxic family. All of this has freed me. 

Like everyone else, I also got side-tracked because I was conditioned that way, but SVB kept guiding me and has only gotten better and better. In my seminar today I will emphasize that it is our social responsibility to learn about and recognize SVB. With SVB, we will create a better world, we can improve our teaching and our relationship with our students and colleagues.

April 9, 2015

April 9, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

I rode my bicycle all the way from my home to downtown Chico. On my way through the park, I noticed my tire had gone flat and I walked over Main Street to the bicycle-repair shop. They couldn’t immediately fix it and I had to come back and pick it up later. Consequently, I had to walk the streets back home, which was quite a walk. Since I haven’t walked the streets like that for a long time, it was a refreshing experience. 

When one walks, one contacts contingencies which one otherwise misses or remain oblivious of. For instance, I walked by a bush with flowers that smelled delicious. I already caught the smell two houses away, because a soft breeze blew the perfume into my direction. As I was about to cross the street, a homeless person, who was talking out loud with himself, crossed the street, while the light was still on red. Because he suddenly started walking, I almost also started walking too, but I could luckily hold myself back. A car nearly missed him and honked loudly at him, but the disheveled man didn’t even seem to notice. As I still stood there waiting for the light to turn green, he crossed the street again and created an identical situation. 

At one point, I had to cross the street because the side-walk on my side of the road had stopped. A whole bunch of cars drove by, but one driver saw I was trying to cross the street and stopped. I could see his friendly face. He waved. I thankfully waved back at him. This was an uplifting moment on my hour long journey back home. He made a difference for me that day.

 

I enjoyed looking at the houses and gardens. The way people arrange their yards says a lot about who is living there. One garden contained a self-made art piece, which looked very nice. It was one of those rocks found locally. It was sculpted like an egg with a dragon coming out of it. It was done very skillfully and it was placed inconspicuously among many of other rocks. 

Other gardens, like the houses, were dilapidated and were not getting any attention from the owner. Gardens around apartment buildings are boring. The bushes and hedges were cut in uniform fashion and there seemed to be something mandatory about the perfectly mowed lawns. However, many vines were crawling over the fences and I enjoyed looking at this invasion.

Other interesting features were drive-ways and garden paths. At one house, there was only grass. At the street side there were big wooden poles with a heavy, rusty chain connecting them. The poles were about three feet above the ground and five feet apart. Someone had hit one of these poles. The pole that had been stabilized with a huge piece of concrete now lay exposed at the entrance of the driveway. Next to it was a big whole. It had been like that for a long time, since the gap was overgrown with many weeds.

At another house someone had recently made a path with pavers leading from the mailbox to the front porch. The mailbox was attached to a metal structure that looked like the Eifel Tower. There were not enough pavers on the path, they were spread too far apart and they were too small. However, the sand around the pavers was raked with great perfection. Anyone visiting here would feel obligated to jump from one paver to the next. 

Then, I came by a house with three fancy cars in front of it. Two men in suits and with sunglasses and a woman in a white dress with long blond hair were smoking cigarettes standing near these expensive cars, The two men looked irritated and the woman looked submissive, but also defiant. I had to pass them closely, but looked away. I felt sorry for the woman and believed she was oppressed or abused by these men. They were territorial and I wasn’t going to look their way. I felt relief after I had passed them.

When I had almost reached my street, there was a father with his young son coming my way. As the pavement was not very wide and as the child was riding a small bicycle, I stepped into the gutter to let them pass. Although he was able to keep steady, the kid enjoyed meandering from the left to the right side of the pavement. When we passed, the father gave me a smile. He was proud of his son and I could see how much he loved his child, who was showing off a little bit. I felt good when I finally reached my street. On the corner was an old rusty car on the drive way, which will probably never run anymore.