October 6, 2016

October 6, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

As our voice changes, the content of our conversation changes; we will say different things when we change how we speak. What we say is function of how we say it. Our sound is the independent variable and a change in our sound causes a change in our conversation, which is the dependent variable. The distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) brings our awareness to the fact that a change in our voice precedes a change in our conversation.

As our tone of voice changes, our conversation changes, but it doesn’t work the other way around: a change in our words doesn’t bring about a change in our voice and a change of the conversation. Although people can fake it, once they know the SVB/NVB distinction, it is evident that faking it is always effortful and sets the stage for NVB, while genuine and effective conversation is effortless and sets the stage for SVB.

We can control our way of talking, increase our SVB and decrease our NVB, if we know what causes each. We must learn to discriminate SVB and NVB. Nobody has told us that a speaker can only have SVB as long as his or her voice is experienced by the listener as an appetitive stimulus. However, each time the speaker’s voice is again experienced by the listener as an aversive stimulus, this speaker engages in NVB.

The listener determines whether the speaker is having SVB or NVB. Of course, the listener can only let the speaker know, if the speaker lets the listener speak. The speaker who engages in NVB uses Voice I, but the speaker who engages in SVB uses Voice II. Correct discrimination of Voice I and Voice II is predicted to cause an effortless shift that will decrease the rate of Voice I and increase the rate of Voice II. As NVB is put on an extinction schedule, this shift will occur less and less.

With ongoing SVB it will become clear that our superstitions and our pre-scientific explanations about why we talked the way we did, have always strengthened our NVB. With ongoing SVB we are at long last released from the prison of our superstitions and stimulated to be attentive to the real causes of why we talk and behave the way we do.

Another joyful finding of increased levels of SVB is that it is possible to continue to understand each other. Given the common high rates of NVB there is no chance to even envision such possibility. Moreover, our communication experiences are so negative that misunderstandings are more likely to happen. Due to our long history of unresolved problems we anticipate misunderstanding and we recreate and perpetuate it.

The only way in which we will be able to understand our own behavior is if we learn to talk about it in the way that will allow us to understand it. We may have become knowledgeable about the science of human behavior, but this doesn’t mean that we have learned the right way to talk about behavior. The dissemination of behavioral science continues to be impaired as long as this learning process is not given attention.

In spite of our high rates of NVB, we still experience a few instances of SVB. Although such moments of sanity are of course essential to our survival, they don’t occur with enough regularity and predictability to be experienced as a relief from the stress and anxiety involved in NVB.

As SVB so seldom occurs we think of it only in terms of the problems it seems to create. However, it is the absence of SVB and the presence of NVB which creates and maintains all our problems. Only when SVB can continue for an extended period of time will we be able to open up to the possibility of an interaction that is without aversive stimulation.

Positive spoken communication is not something to be dreamed about, but must be put into practice as soon as possible. There is no need for approval from some higher authority. You can and you must verify that each time when you listen to yourself while you speak, you will be able to experience SVB in which the speaker and the listener are one.