March 23, 2015

March 23, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

 

I described yesterday that paying attention to the consequences of our vocal verbal behavior equals paying attention to what we don’t like! Since we only pay attention to things to the extent that they are different from what we are used to, we are not that much inclined to pay attention to the consequences of how we talk. The reason we have this dilemma is because of previous occasions in which our vocal verbal behavior was reinforced by positive consequences or punished by negative consequences of our way of communicating. As long as we got what we want, we had no reason to be busy with the consequences, because they were, according to us, “good.” 

We have only been paying attention to our way of talking when it didn’t get us what we want, or rather, when it didn't get us what we were used to, when consequences, according to us, were “bad.” Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) are respondent processes and can be seen as two different sets of paired stimuli. Verbal episodes determined by an abundance of SVB instances, were made possible by the circumstances in which communicators repeatedly experienced pairings of Voice II with supportive, positive, sensitive and comfortable experiences. By contrast, the verbal episodes in which NVB instances outnumber SVB instances, are caused by behavioral histories of communicators, who were repeatedly in situations in which Voice I was paired with a set of coercive, negative, insensitive, frightening and dangerous experiences. This pairing process of stimuli is called classical conditioning.