December 24, 2014

December 24, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,


The behavioral cusp, which joins our speaking and our listening behavior, makes Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) possible, but as long as this discrimination skill has not yet been achieved, we are bound to engage in Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). SVB is nothing new, we all know it, we have had it, but we have only had it incidentally,  occasionally and not deliberately, skillfully, consciously and continuously. We can become conscious communicators with SVB. 


SVB is new because it demonstrates that NVB, our common way of talking, has made us and kept us  unconscious. Various behaviorists have already acknowledged SVB, but have not yet analyzed it the way this author did, by talking about it. This author is unconventional because he is a self-taught behaviorist. He has approached behaviorist authors with the proposition to present his spoken (not written!) thesis for an examination committee, with whom he wants to explore and verify the SVB/NVB distinction in order to be awarded a Ph.D.in behaviorism. He is convinced that such a examination committee will agree with him on the tremendous importance of this distinction and he insists that his spoken thesis must be talked about rather then read about as in this blog.
 

Emphasis on content, on technical scientific terms, is what this author calls verbal fixation, which gives rise to NVB. In SVB, by contrast, we focus is on how we sound, on what we experience while we speak, on the nonverbal. In SVB what we say comes out and is received very differently because of how we say it.The distinction between SVB and NVB is based on how we sound while we speak.

Our sound is a behavior, which is produced and observed, that is, listened to, in the here and now. Our listening behavior has a longer history than our speaking behavior. It preceded the arrival of language, phylogenetically as well as ontogenetically. For eons of time man has lived without any language. During this time we already produced sounds. Language is a late development our evolutionary history. We are born nonverbal, but during the course of our development we become verbal. Becoming verbal is not the end of our development. Only in SVB do we become conscious communicators. In NVB we are also verbal, but we are unconscious, mechanical communicators. 

Our sound informs us about whether we are having respondent or operant behavior. Talking about SVB and NVB only makes sense if we attain SVB. As long as SVB is not attained, as long as NVB continues, the distinction between SVB and NVB doesn't make sense. Writing and reading about SVB can stimulate us to talk about SVB and NVB, but it cannot do anything as far as reinforcing SVB. 

How does SVB work? Try it out and you will not be able to refute it. Look at how you and others talk NVB with each other. We all know the great difference between talking at or with each other. 

SVB is pragmatic in that it suggests that every language consists of two languages. By recognizing what all languages have in common, we are able to make progress which wasn't possible before we knew this. There is SVB and NVB French, there is SVB and NVB Chinese and there is SVB and NVB English. The subject, the listener is always right. In SVB, the mediator, not the verbalizer, is always right. Without the mediator there is no communication, only the pretention of communication. In NVB, the verbalizer is always right, because he or she places him or her self hierarchically above the listener. In NVB the verbalizer coerces the mediator with an aversive contingency.

This writer is not interested in who will read this. He is interested in who will discuss this with him and who will verify this with him. If those who read this will discuss this with him, his writing was effective. The goal of this writer is to change and improve the way in which we communicate. He knows that most of us have NVB, no matter how good our intentions are and no matter how hard we try.  The good news is that our behavior can be changed and that SVB is easy and effortless. Whether we will have SVB is always determined by those who listen to us. When we have SVB, we will all agree that we have SVB. Unless we all agree that we have SVB, we continue to have NVB.

As long as words make us insensitive to the process of our interaction, we will engage in NVB. As long as the three-term contingency (stimulus, response, consequence), which makes our words meaningful, is not explored while we talk, our words will distract us from the fact that verbal behavior is behavior that is mediated by others and we will engage, like we are used to, in NVB. We can talk about our most challenging, painful and emotional experiences in a SVB manner, even though we are accustomed to talking about these in a NVB fashion. Scientist aim to be unbiased and have verifiable results. They should be the first ones to achieve SVB.