March 1, 2016

March 1, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

In “Tutorial about Stimulus Control, Part 1”, Dinsmoor (1995) writes “Increases and decreases in stimulus control occur under the same conditions as those leading to increases and decreases in observing responses, indicating that the increasing frequency and duration of observation (and perhaps of attention) that produces the separation in performances during discrimination learning.” This statement is pertinent to the Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB)/ Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) distinction. We will only be able to achieve and maintain SVB for any period of time for as long as we observe, listen to ourselves while we speak. 

The activation of the speaker-as-own-listener does not occur at any time during NVB. Only to the extent that the speaker is stimulated by the other communicators (speakers as well as listeners) to pay attention to his or her own sound, will he or she be able to acknowledge that he or she either goes back and forth between SVB and NVB or he or she continues with only SVB or NVB. As this distinction is as of yet unknown, most interaction even among behaviorists falls into the NVB category. 

To someone familiar with SVB/NVB distinction, it is clear that NVB, in which the speaker’s voice negatively affects the listener, is NOT conducive to a complete account of behavior. “In the analysis of behavior, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the control of responding by stimuli that follow the response (e.g. reinforcing stimuli), but comparatively little attention has been given to control by stimuli that precede the response (e.g. discriminative stimuli).” Although Dinsmoor wrote about it, neither he nor any other behaviorist emphasized the necessity to speak about it. Only by speaking about this matter will we acknowledge that the SVB/NVB distinction is needed.