August 1, 2014

August 1, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

Most of this writer’s writing is produced by what is known as automatic reinforcement, it reinforces itself. Verbal behavior doesn’t necessarily need the participation of another person, because the letters, words and sentences, which are produced by the writer, are read by this writer, in the same way that a speaker could hear him or herself speak. Similarly to vocal verbal behavior, in which the speaker’s sound waves are not only mediated by other people, but also affect the speaker him or herself, because he or she hears him or herself speak, writers read their own writing and are affected by their own words. 

If there was no such thing as automatic reinforcement, this writer would have stopped writing a long time ago, because without reinforcement his behavior would be extinguished. Of course, this intrinsic reinforcement can only last for so long, because, ultimately, like any other behavior, verbal behavior is sustained by extrinsic reinforcers supplied by others, readers and listeners, other than the writer or the speaker him or herself. This writer’s writing becomes more automatically reinforcing to the extent that he considers these members of a remote audience, who eventually will be reading his writing. His vocal and written verbal behavior has been repeatedly reinforced in the presence of others, who belong to the Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) community. 

The most important aspect about a verbal community is that in it people produce similar sounds, which are languages, such a German or English. Within each verbal community people reinforce specific sounds under specific circumstances. For instance, when seeing a tree, a person from the English verbal community is reinforced for saying “Tree”, but a person from the German verbal community is reinforced only for saying “Baum.” We forget that words are sounds. 

Rather than only thinking about words being reinforced by our own verbal community, this writer wants to stimulate the reader to think about sounds that are reinforced by the different verbal communities. When an object is shown to a child and this child is reinforced for producing the sound that sounds like “Tisch”, this sound, in a German verbal community, will reliably be produced by this child in the presence of a table. It is because this sound was reinforced by others, that this sound was operantly conditioned. In the English verbal community this sound would not be reinforced. It would either be punished or extinguished. The only correct sound for the object that will be reinforced in an English verbal community is “Table.” 

Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), the spoken communication made possible by the reinforcement of positive emotions, is also shaped and maintained by our verbal community. A different verbal community reinforces our Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB).