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Do You Have an Internal Monologue?

Do you have an internal monologue?

  • Yes, I can 'hear' my voice in my mind

    Votes: 24 96.0%
  • No, I cannot 'hear' my voice in my mind

    Votes: 1 4.0%

  • Total voters
    25

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
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I have an internal monologue/‘hear’ myself. I’m not surprised others might not experience that. Brains are weird.

I wonder if it’s got anything to do with learning styles. I recall taking a test on that & scoring strongly in the verbal/linguistic as well as auditory/musical learning styles, and quite a bit lower on things like visual and kinesthetic. Perhaps there’s a correlation between the inner voice processing & how we learn in general...
 

EcK

The Memes Justify the End
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I have an internal monologue/‘hear’ myself. I’m not surprised others might not experience that. Brains are weird.

I wonder if it’s got anything to do with learning styles. I recall taking a test on that & scoring strongly in the verbal/linguistic as well as auditory/musical learning styles, and quite a bit lower on things like visual and kinesthetic. Perhaps there’s a correlation between the inner voice processing & how we learn in general...

First the cats, now you're talking to yourself.

Your prospects aren't looking good.
 

Lexicon

Temporal Mechanic
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First the cats, now you're talking to yourself.

Your prospects aren't looking good.

I’ve always talked in my head. And talked to cats. This ain’t news, bear. :coffee:
 

Polaris

AKA Nunki
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I do have an internal monologue, a constant one. My visual imagination, by contrast, is decidedly lacking now that I'm taking medication for bipolar. It used to be quite rich, especially when I was very young, but now I just get brief flashes of imagery that I have little control over. I did have my dosage reduced, but it hasn't helped much. I just have to put up with it, because I don't want to go out of my mind and wind up in the hospital a fourth time.
 

prplchknz

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yupp
okay, not sure how to answer this because i have a voice in my head it's just not mine. sometimes there's multiple but not at once (that would make me crazy) but like one voice will talk about one thing then another jumps in with something completely different.
 

á´…eparted

passages
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According to the way this particular article explains it, no I don't. But according to how I view it yes (as I never stop thinking), but its largely not language based nor tied to the present moment or even reality by default. It only becomes an overt internal monolog when I am doing so with intention and when talking to myself outloud is not an option, and even then though it's sort of patchy. I do do it though and it is very easy for me to do so. I'm not sure if it is a voice though, because in that case that sort of quality isn't a default. I do hear voices when I imagine others speak as I easily remember the sound of folks voices, but I can shift that around as I want and doesn't tend to default. The sound of the voice has to have some sort of emotional meaning for me to be turned "on". Like, when I read I don't hear it in any particular voice, unless I know who wrote it and know their voice (and sometimes I have to "make" that happen).

My self-chatter is most often concept based and somewhat image based. I don't so much hear it as I feel it and know it. It also tends to come at me in packets. The best way I could describe that is I will receive what would be the equivalent of a 2 minute speech, but I instinctively know the content of it already and can move on from it or unpack it depending on what I want/need. It's sort of like if you just walked away from listening to a speech and are remembering it having just heard/learned it. If I want or need to know the details I sort of have to "decompress" it, and that process doesn't go A-B-C-D, it goes in a non-linear fashion.

Generally, I just don't think in a straight line or a straightforward way.

I have an internal monologue/‘hear’ myself. I’m not surprised others might not experience that. Brains are weird.


I wonder if it’s got anything to do with learning styles. I recall taking a test on that & scoring strongly in the verbal/linguistic as well as auditory/musical learning styles, and quite a bit lower on things like visual and kinesthetic. Perhaps there’s a correlation between the inner voice processing & how we learn in general...

I would not be surprised if there is a connection with these. Of the typical types of thinking styles, my most comfortable and strongest is spatial visualization. Pretty much all of my thinking tends to relate to this, even when I think of non-physical things and is one of the reasons science has always been a fairly natural thing for me to learn. The "feeling" I get when I recall concepts feels extremely similar to that of visualizing objects in my head and rotating them around.

One way to explain it that might be easily understood. When I am driving around and have google maps open (but it's on top-down view and not from the drive forward prospective) I can still easily know where to go and turn. For example, if I am driving south and need to turn east I don't automatically know that I need to turn left (well, I do but that knowing doesn't help me). Instead I glance at the map and in my mind imagine the map rotating 180 degrees from where it is so I have a direct correlation with my facing position. While I do this, I naturally imagine a line coming out from the side for the direction I need to go in. When I mentally rotate it, that line (which goes off into infinity) will sort of "wash over me" and I'll pseudo-physically feel it with respect to the orientation of space. That feeling is what locks in and confirms the direction I need to go. Because of this if I have a map I never get lost. Even if I don't have a map I will still go through this sort of mental process for direction and space. Generally, this style of thinking gets applied to all kinds of stuff for me.

In a way, it's almost as if I don't need language for most things cause information is stored and processed in different ways. When I was young verbal/linguistic styles of thinking were really hard for me and I found them frustrating and redundant. I am much better at those things now, but it's very much a learned skill.
 

Pionart

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I get that some people have more internal speech than others, and there will be different qualities to that speech for different people. And of course there are many kinds of thinking that are non-verbal, so it is feasible for someone to not have the verbal component. But it still seems strange to me that this should be the case. Of course it's possible, because there would be some people who don't know how to speak at all and they have no internal speech, but for a person who does know how to speak, the lack of internal verbalising really is quite a confusing phenomenon.
 

The Cat

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I have several. sometimes more than one at a time, it can become cacophonous in there :shrug:
 

Pionart

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okay, not sure how to answer this because i have a voice in my head it's just not mine. sometimes there's multiple but not at once (that would make me crazy) but like one voice will talk about one thing then another jumps in with something completely different.

That's spirits.

Some say it's "the unconscious". I'm not quite sure what that means though. I guess people think it's some independent part(s) of your own mind talking to you? Which implies what exactly?
 

rav3n

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I'm one of those people who doesn't have an internal monologue. Part of it is because I don't think in words and only translate my thoughts to words, when I have to communicate.
 

Pionart

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I'm one of those people who doesn't have an internal monologue. Part of it is because I don't think in words and only translate my thoughts to words, when I have to communicate.

Can you explain a bit about what the nature of your thoughts is?
 

rav3n

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Can you explain a bit about what the nature of your thoughts is?
Imagine amorphous blobs of concepts that are layered with perspectives, et al. It's sort of pictorial and sort of not.
 

Pionart

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Imagine amorphous blobs of concepts that are layered with perspectives, et al. It's sort of pictorial and sort of not.

I'm not totally sure what you mean.

Does it accompany a construction-oriented process where you're trying to piece together something, like building something in your mind? And do you monitor processes around you in the environment a lot?

I'm trying to simulate a similar mode of thinking.
 

rav3n

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I'm not totally sure what you mean.

Does it accompany a construction-oriented process where you're trying to piece together something, like building something in your mind? And do you monitor processes around you in the environment a lot?

I'm trying to simulate a similar mode of thinking.
Unfortunately, it's impossible for me to explain in sufficiently detailed terms for anyone to emulate.
 

The Cat

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It's like a slumber party kid. If you have to ask. You'll never know. :shrug:
 

highlander

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Of course I do. Constantly. Doesnt everyone? It's a tricky thing. It can be both positive or negative.
 

rav3n

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Why's that?
How do you describe something amorphous where the conceptual data's already there and the point of entry for the data, unknown most of the time? Describe in detailed concrete terms what emotional hurt feels like to you, sufficient that someone else can emulate it.
 

Indigo Rodent

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I have inner monologue, can also do inner dialogue.

I have very poor visualisation ability, though. Like I can't visualise things on command, can't do stuff like memory palace, etc. Sometimes I something like a blurred movie but with very little control over it.
 
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