People without an inner voice have poorer verbal memory
humanities.ku.dk
The vast majority of people have an ongoing conversation with themselves, an inner voice, that plays an important role in their daily lives. But between 5-10 per cent of the population do not have the same experience of an inner voice, and they find it more difficult to perform certain verbal memory tasks, new research shows.
  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    131·
    6 months ago

    i still don’t understand what the fuck an internal monologue is supposed to be.

    I’ve heard it’s the thing that makes you do things, i’ve heard it’s a thing that just exists.

    I don’t know what it is, what it does, or what it seems to be for, and i don’t even know whether i have one.

    Science is a bitch sometimes.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        11·
        6 months ago

        if that’s how it’s defined than i think i have some sort of weird hybrid of it. I have an internal monologue for certain things, like if im working on a project and need a design for it, that’ll cause me problems. But if i’m just sitting down and thinking about something, i’m usually talking it out. For example i’ve been into sociology a bit recently, and i’ve found myself talking out loud about things very frequently.

        weird.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            3·
            6 months ago

            kind of? I sort of follow along with what i’m typing but it’s less of a written dialogue thing, and more of a phonetic rendition of it, if that makes sense.

            It follows the pace of my brain absorbing the words, as well as writing them out, which can make reading a chore sometimes. When i’m reading a book, i’m often absorbed enough to be able to engage with it pretty tightly, and i can usually follow along a lot better, with a stronger inner monologue, it’s weird.

            Like typing this post out right now inside of my head sounds more like trying to speak the words per syllable as you write them down on a piece of paper, as opposed to reciting them, if that makes any sense.

          • lazylion_ca@lemmy.caEnglish
            3·
            6 months ago

            Yes. It’s like being on the phone with someone whois reading everything out loud to you.

    • rocketpoweredredneck@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      for me, sometimes my internal monologue is like a very lazy audio book narrator who only reads the dialogue, and sometimes not even that. other times its like i have the whole cast of a radio drama in there, in the middle of the apex of the plot.

    • realitista@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      6·
      6 months ago

      I think if you’d have one, you’d know. There’s zero confusion on my part whether it’s there. It’s definitely there talking to me any time I’m thinking of words.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        i think the problem that i have, is that i have one, but only for certain activities, i don’t seem to have one for thought/verbal tasks. But when im working on something i’m designing i often have one present most of the time.

    • lazylion_ca@lemmy.caEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      Its like being on the phone with yourself. Everything you read is spoken to you. When you see an accident about to hsppen, you hear ‘That guy is about to eat it.’ When you see an attractive person you hear ‘Niiiiccceee!’.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      6 months ago

      for me it’s literally just my own voice (and i can mimic other voices) and i sort of hear it overlaid on everything else, sorta like what happens when you hold a hand in front of only one eye, you see both things at once.

      The only real difference from my physical voice is that there’s none of that delay and friction from having to physically speak, so it’s harder to prevent my inner monologue from saying stuff which is extremely annoying since i’m autistic and thus have echolalia, meaning i just reflexively repeat things i hear…

      The idea that other people have some sort of independent inner voice, or even several ones, is rather terrifying to me.

      • Revonult@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        Mine doesn’t sound like anything but I can change the cadence or accent. Like it doesn’t make the “noise” as hearing. Like it bypasses those “channels”.

    • Olhonestjim@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      6 months ago

      It’s my own voice in my head. Its difficult to determine on what level I control it. It doesn’t “make” me do things, but it’s not like I decide what it says before it speaks. I often wonder if it’s the other half of my brain. I speak differently in person than I do inside my head, or type, for that matter.

      Regardless whether it’s a kind of supplemental personality inside my head, one thing I’m convinced of is that many people mistake their internal monologue for the Voice of God.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        6 months ago

        huh, that’s weird, mine i have full control over. It’s thoughts are quite literally my thoughts. And my thoughts are it’s thoughts as well.

        maybe i’ve developed an artificial internal monologue?

        • Olhonestjim@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          Oh, it’s certainly my thoughts. I’m just saying I don’t decide what to think before I think, you know? And I think in that voice, so I really can’t identify anything prior. It’s just me in here, but it’s a funny way to think about consciousness.

          • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            6 months ago

            yeah, in a way it’s impossible to think about what you think, as you think about it, that’s how train of thought works. The only time you ever have a whole spiel ready is if you’ve been practicing it regularly, and then it’s no longer train of thought anymore.