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Not everyone has an internal monologue

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Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#351

Post by pbhjpbhj »

abathur wrote: post #319

This topic (comments here, the OP, and comments in threads elsewhere) exposes some conflicting definitions of what an "internal monologue" is or means. - Some people describe hearing their internal monologue, which I take to mean something like: they have an internal monologue, and it manifests as a voice that only they hear. These people are analogous to those who see things they picture in their mind's eye . - Some…

There have been a few threads on these subjects recently on HN, aphantasia was a pretty hot topic.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#352

Post by WJW »

_y5hn wrote: post #248
ASalazarMX wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is much sexier though than irl. I wonder why is that? Well, now it is. Thank you (and me I guess for being so susceptible).

Now your read this sentence in Darth Vader voice. Not the first time though.

Just wanted to comment that I don't seem to be able to do internal Darth Vader voice. No idea why.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#354

Post by theboywho »

ericmcer wrote: post #336

This doesn't make any sense to me, even his example: 'One person even mentioned that when they do voice overs in movies of people’s thoughts, they “wished that it was real.”' How can they form the thought 'I wish that was real' if they have no monologue? And to convey that thought they just open their mouth and spew forth a sentence with no knowledge of its shape?

This was disturbing to me as well, but one way to think about it is how babies end up learning to talk: they don't speak any language initially, but they are still capable of thinking, since you need that in order to learn to talk, so they must be using something else other than language to "think", and since monologue is mostly language, this "something else" is unlikely to be a monologue.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#355

Post by RIMR »

mhandley wrote: post #35
c_o_u_n_t_s wrote: post #11

Similarly, not everyone can visualize things in their mind. Pixar's founder Ed Catmull did a survey of Pixar employees and, interestingly, there wasn't that big of a skew of artists who are able to mentally visualize. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47830256 I wonder if there's an intersection of people who do not have an internal monologue nor a "mind's eye?"

I'm a very visual person, but I can't visualize faces at all. I have no problem remembering faces, but I can't visualize them. When I'm fully awake, I can sort of visualize other things, but it's never perfectly clear. But when I've just woken up, I can lucid dream, and then I can consciously visualize really complex 3d structures, and design mechanisms in my head much more easily than I can using CAD software when I…

Your brain handles facial information differently than it does any other visual information.

Most visual information is processed by your Occipital Lobe.

But facial information is processed by your Temporal Lobe.

To be fair, facial recognition is a major part of human cognition, so this isn't all that surprising that it's specialized.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#356

Post by ponyous »

klondike_klive wrote: post #168
jrauser wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm like this, but when I have too much caffeine I notice that it's harder to turn the monologue off. It becomes a little shouty in fact. Brains are weird.

When I have too much caffeine I've noticed that I have very strong ability to recall auditory information, specifically tunes. I get a sort of perfect-pitch effect where I can consistently recall music in the proper key and replay it in my mind. It also happens late at night.

How do you remember music? Can you try to describe how you recall it?

I have this problem with music/sound specifically. I cannot remember it at all. For example, I have favourite artist that I heard all of his albums 50+ times. If you play a random track of his to me I won't be able to identify it. Another example; My favourite all time soundtrack that I heard countless times, I cannot recall how it goes. If somebody asks me to "sing" the melody I will fail miserably. Oh and I don't know lyrics of any song. Any. I tried to learn though...

I still get tired of listening to the same tracks over and over again :( .

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#357

Post by kharak »

meowface wrote: post #255
thrwaway69 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now, I am super self conscious of the otherwise ignored voice which reads everything I type and see. It is much sexier though than irl. I wonder why is that ? On the other hand, I can speak much faster yay. Why? Is your voice reading this comment too? Maybe. Do you feel like you are conversing with an oddly being? Maybe. I am alive. Where is my mind reading tech?

There are some theories that the brain may effectively contain more than one "proto-consciousness" (or perhaps some of them are actually "fully conscious"). Maybe 2 or 3, maybe a whole lot of them. If this is true, then when you have an internal "dialogue", you may be literally conversing with different sapient "beings". If so, who's actually the "you" there? Are you one of them, or all of them, or just kind of obser…

Wow, as I'm aware of the idea, that our brains may indeed host several consciousnesses, I did not expect to be freaked out by any of this. But if my inner narrator is another consciousness, holy.

Just at the realization struck me, my inner voice said knowingly "Heeeellloo there". Ahaha, I'm going to bed now.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#358

Post by pb7 »

ericmcer wrote: post #336

This doesn't make any sense to me, even his example: 'One person even mentioned that when they do voice overs in movies of people’s thoughts, they “wished that it was real.”' How can they form the thought 'I wish that was real' if they have no monologue? And to convey that thought they just open their mouth and spew forth a sentence with no knowledge of its shape?

You’re taking it a step too far. People with no inner monologue are not incapable of thinking and feeling. What they expressed to the author just wasn’t expressed internally the way you and I would (by thinking and talking about in our heads).

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#359

Post by perl4ever »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #42
c_o_u_n_t_s wrote: post #11

Similarly, not everyone can visualize things in their mind. Pixar's founder Ed Catmull did a survey of Pixar employees and, interestingly, there wasn't that big of a skew of artists who are able to mentally visualize. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47830256 I wonder if there's an intersection of people who do not have an internal monologue nor a "mind's eye?"

I can visualize but not very well, if I were to try to actively visualize a structure I'm pretty sure it would be rotated wrong or have different problems. When I was in high school I had a test that put me in the lowest 3% of the population for visual understanding of things (like put these blocks together to make this shape) and the top 95% for reading comprehension. Generally instead of visualizing something I wou…

"I can visualize but not very well, if I were to try to actively visualize a structure I'm pretty sure it would be rotated wrong or have different problems"

Some claim that's nearly everyone. Someone did an experiment where they asked a bunch of people to draw a bicycle, which they had all seen in their lives, from memory without a model. Not a particular bicycle, just "a bicycle". The configurations were very diverse and different from the geometric/physical arrangement of real ones.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#360

Post by rrobukef »

WJW wrote: post #352
_y5hn wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now your read this sentence in Darth Vader voice. Not the first time though.

Just wanted to comment that I don't seem to be able to do internal Darth Vader voice. No idea why.

The memories of not hearing the voice of professor Farnsworth when reading the meme (from before I watched Futurama) feel very weird.
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