February 6, 2016

February 6, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

In “Beyond Words: Human Communication Through Sound” (2016)  Kraus & Slater write “A recurring theme throughout this review is that our experience of sound is rooted in the physical world, that sound is rooted in movement, and that our motor systems play an essential role in our perception of the inherent structure of sound.” It seems that these cognitivist researchers reach a behaviorist conclusion! 

“The sophisticated systems of modern communication are rooted in our more ancient relationship with sound.” They propose our brains have evolved to seek out patterns “as we try to make sense of the sounds that we hear.” Furthermore, “these patterns also provide a framework for communicating with others and there is close integration between our ability to produce as well as perceive communication sounds.” They have gathered evidence that “the same neural networks involved in generating the movements to produce sound are also intimately involved in the perception of underlying patterns. Therefore, communication is not simply the transfer of sound signals from one person to another but rather is an interaction between physical entities.” Interestingly, they abandon an information-processing cognitive interpretation for an inclusive and more parsimonious behaviorist functional relationship. 

Indeed, we either reinforce each other’s Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) or each other’s Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). “Evidence indicates that when two individuals synchronize their movements, this increases affiliation between them and promotes bonding.” These authors describe SVB (not NVB) when they conclude that “From the dyadic exchange between mother and child, to conversational turn-taking and improvisational jazz, these patterns in time not only streamline information processing, they also help us to connect.”