c) Auditory accessing is characterized by relatively even muscle tension and minor rhythmic movements. The shoulders tend to be thrown back, although somewhat slouched, into what we call the "saxophone" position (because the individual holds his body as if s/he were playing a saxophone). The individual will also often have his head tilted to one side.
3.235 Tonal and Tempo Changes.
The breathing, postural and muscle tonus changes that an individual goes through will affect other behavioral outputs that can also serve as effective indicators of representational system activity. Changes in voice tempo and tonality will be caused by the changes in breathing and muscle tension in the face and neck area. The amount of air, and the rapidity with which it is pushed over one's vocal chords, will cause noticeable changes in voice quality.
a) Quick bursts of words in a high pitched, nasal and/or strained tonality with a typically fast tempo of speech accompanies visual processing.
b) Slow voice tempo with long pauses and in a characteristically low, deep and often breathy tonality indicates kinesthetic accessing.
c) A clear, midrange tonality in an even and sometimes rhythmic tempo and typically well enunciated words will accompany activity in the auditory representational system.
Some other indicator/accessing cues for the auditory system are tapping, snapping the fingers and making clicking, humming or whistling noises with one's mouth.
Organizing things on one's fingers tends to accompany internal dialogue and other auditory digital accessing.
3.24 Employing the Elicitation Procedures
These distinctions as we have suggested, are but a few of the wealth of possible patterns available to you with which you can break down complex sequences of behavior. For the purposes of this book, however, we will for the most part limit our analysis to those cues involving eye movements and verbal predicates, and we will employ the other distinctions listed here only where they are important or obvious. We have found that the distinctions provided by the eye movement patterns and verbal predicates constitute the minimum number of distinctions necessary to unpack practically any strategy.
We are now ready to begin to apply all of the various components of the elicitation procedure together. Through a few examples we will demonstrate how the process as a whole takes place.
EXAMPLE A
Consider the following sequence of behavior presented by an administrative director of an organization in making a decision. She has just read a written report that had been submitted to her and must generate an outcome decision on the basis of the information contained in the report. This person could just as easily be a judge, diplomat, executive or anyone in a decision making capacity.
"As I look this over . .." (eyes scan paper, then she pauses and takes a deep breath as her eyes shift down and to the right momentarily and then move over to the left) "… I get the feeling that something may have been left out …" (reaches up and strokes her chin) "… and I have to ask myself, how might this affect the results of this decision where it is so important that we have a clear understanding?" (Eyes move up and to the right where they make a number of slight lateral shifts and then move down and to the right before returning to make eye contact with the person standing before her.) "I really don't know what to say about it."
Analysis: She begins with the external visual stimulus from the written report (Ve ) which she has probably read in detail sometime earlier.
Predicate: "look over"
Accessing cue: Eyes scan external object.
Analysis:The visual stimulus accesses internal kinesthetic sensations (Ki) about what was printed.
Predicate: "I get the feeling"
Accessing cue: Deep breath, eyes move down and right.
Analysis:These feelings then initiate an internal auditory digital response (Aid).
Predicate: "ask myself”
Accessing cue: Eyes down and left, hand strokes chin.
Analysis:She then constructs a series of internal visual images in response to the internal verbalization (Vc1 , Vc2, … Vcn).
Predicate: "clear understanding"
Accessing cue: Slight shifts of the eyes while in up and right position.
Analysis:The constructed images access internal feelings (Ki).
Predicate: -
Accessing cue: Eyes down and right.
Analysis:Were the decision to be made, or still in progress, the administrative director would be able to make some verbalization (Ad) in response to the feelings to either exit or continue the decision process. Her comment here, however, indicates the absence of experience within that representational system. (Lack of information is information.)
Predicate: "don't know what to say about it."
Accessing cue: -
Assume this administrative director is talking to you. Perhaps you have submitted the report she is reviewing and have some concern about the outcome of the decision. Perhaps you are a consultant assisting the person in making this important decision. In any case, you wish to access resources to help this administrator deal with her indecisiveness. In our way of thinking, arguing with or confronting the person over the content of the proposal will typically be of little value in helping her get the decision made. It is the way the individual processes the content (her strategy) that is important in cases like this. She has already given you all of the information you need to unpack the strategy that is leading to the indecision:
We could notate this strategy in the following way:
You will notice that we have bracketed the series of constructed visual images, one beneath the other, to indicate that they occurred in the same step. We have put the (?) in front of the A^ step to indicate that even though it is the appropriate next step in the strategy, the activity within it has not reached a sufficient magnitude for the strategy to continue.
You could also punctuate the strategy into the following functional steps.