April 21, 2015

April 21, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

A history of conditioning is necessary to distinguish between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB). We don’t fail to make this distinction, because it is so difficult to make, but because this history is lacking. On first discovery this distinction seems very clear, but as time goes by one finds there is no support to keep making this distinction in everyday situations. We give up on it as this distinction in not repeatedly made. When the distinction is first made, it is a very happy experience, but nothing of this happy experience remains, when we can no longer make this distinction. 

We like others to support us, but when we focus our attention on others instead of on ourselves, we increase our rate of NVB. We will only be able to achieve higher rates of SVB to the extent that we are able to arrange for ourselves the situation in which we can have SVB. We can have someone  read from a book or a newspaper or tell us a story, but we also have the ability to read, write, make up or tell a story ourselves. After exposure to the SVB/NVB distinction, the listener notices that a speaker alternates between instances of SVB and NVB. Recognizing SVB and NVB in others, however, also involves knowledge about the fact that a speaker’s overt expressions evoke in a listener’s body mediating covert listening, observing and reporting responses, which under the right circumstances could become overt. 

Covert responses can only become overt when audience variables are present which make that possible. Only when audience variables evoke speaking in the listener, will the listener produce conscious talking in which his or her thinking and knowing is overtly expressed. This is seldom if ever the case. 

A listener’s covert verbal report can only be considered conscious responding, if this immediate overt response is possible, that is, if the listener can  become the speaker. Given the fact that audience variables are usually such that this is not possible, the listener gets stuck with his or her audience of one. Due to unfavorable circumstances people talk with themselves. 

Yet, the listener would like to express him or herself to others, overtly. As long as listeners only talk with themselves, covertly, they cannot become conscious about what they think, feel or know. The listener can’t become conscious about what he or she knows as long as speakers prevent him or her from speaking. Even though, people who talk with themselves covertly often end up talking with themselves out loud, overtly, they will only be conscious of what they say to themselves to the extent that they listen to themselves while they speak. Ironically, most people who talk with themselves overtly are not listening to themselves while they speak. People who talk with themselves out loud usually do so compulsively. We may say that this or that person likes to hear him or herself talk, but fact is that those who dominate others are not listening to themselves.

I discovered SVB because I was disappointed in my interactions with others. When I first started talking with myself, I became aware of why people start talking with themselves. When I gave myself permission to talk out loud with myself, I was surprised to find out that my sound was different from when I was talking with others. I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to maintain my sound with others, but this sound was immediately available again the moment I was alone. To this day, I have my sound with only a few people.

My body feels very different when I am with others. Their voices are stimuli which evoke the mediation of my body’s overt behavior. This also affects my attention span. Thus, overt vocal verbal behavior evokes covert responses about how my body experiences the sound of someone’s voice. My history of responding to such covert stimuli has taught me that making them overt can get me in trouble. However, I discovered I can stay out of trouble, by making them covert to an audience of one, that is, by talking out loud with myself. 

By talking out loud with myself, I was able to let myself know what I know: conscious communication requires verbal reports about the behavior of the speaker’s body. The speaker’s body instantly responds to his or her voice. As the sound of our voice occurs in the here and now, attention for our sound  synchronizes speaking and listening behavior. Our voice, a stimulus, evokes a sequence of behavior-behavior functional relations, which covertly may lead to neural responses of well-being and can be overtly expressed as SVB. I found out that SVB keeps us conscious and NVB keeps us unconscious.