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Not everyone has an internal monologue

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Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#441

Post by JabavuAdams »

kedean wrote: post #219
echelon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I think that's pretty normal. I do it all the time. I can even "compose" my own music (it can be any genre, with any type of instruments, and even include voices), but I have no ability to play instruments myself. I'd love to get into music, but just don't have the time. My literature professor back in college said he "listened to" classical music in his head during his morning runs. I just assumed everyone did i…

Man I can't even imagine. I realize a while back that I don't actually hear music in my head when I have an earworm, instead I hear a representation of it made entirely of what would be vocalized sounds. So if I'm hearing the guitar solo from November Rain, its kind of like someone (me, really) going 'bowwwww owww nah nahhhh nah nahahhhhhhh wan nah nah nah nah wah wah' rather than actual guitar noises, but then it's…

I'd like to explore this aphantasia idea a bit more. I would classify myself as very visual, but on thinking about this more ... it's not like I have a high-fidelity visual impression of the imagined object in my mind's eye. It's more like a physical / tactile impression of presence. Is that what it's like for you?

As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking of describing it as ... If I shut my eyes I still know roughly where the monitor corners, the keyboard, the table corners, the wine-bottle, the apple, etc. are. It's not like I'm seeing them, but I can spatially query them and perform operations on them. So is this a difference in internal perception, or is it a difference in how we describe those internal states?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#442

Post by jhayward »

oh_sigh wrote: post #431
mayoff wrote: post #192

What Do You Care What Other People Think? , a book of Richard Feynman stories, has a chapter that ties into this. You can read the chapter here: http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/607/2/Feynman.pdf He discovers that he can read while counting in his head at a steady rate, but he cannot talk while counting. When he tells his friends, one of them claims to be the opposite, and indeed proves that he can count while ta…

This has gotten me into a lot of trouble in my life. I don't use internal monologue to read - that means that I can be reading and listening to someone at the same time, and comprehend both. But, even if I can prove I heard and understood everything someone said, they inevitably view it as rude if I am reading something while listening to them.

I used to get in so much trouble for this in primary/secondary school. Listening to someone talk was boring beyond belief. So I read sci-fi in class.

I could always respond correctly when called upon, and could recite virtually word-for-word the entire class lecture if need be, so I eventually got a pass to just do my thing.

At this great distance in time I can see how this was impolite to say the least. But, really, it was bordering on abuse to make me sit there and listen with nothing else to keep my mind occupied.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#443

Post by mcculley »

One thing that I noticed when I was a child was that I didn't internally sound words out when I read them. I have to consciously switch to "hearing" the words in my head when I read. My elementary school cohort all told me that they always heard the words when they read and I have found this to largely be the case when I talk about it with adults now.

I think this allowed me to read faster at an early age as I was not limited to the tempo of speech when reading. Certainly this is true for many people.

One drawback I have noticed: I don't get puns when I am reading unless I slow down and voice out the words.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#444

Post by carapace »

First, if you liked this, check out "Neurolinguistic Programming", it's like the "machine code" of subjective experience.

- - - -

Second, I'm an internal-dialog person (FWIW), when I picked up one of the Star Trek (original series-based) novels and read it my mind spontaneously (as in it surprised me) used the actors' voices for the characters dialog. E.g. when I read Kirk's dialog I heard it in Shatner's voice automatically! Same for the other characters. It was pretty startling.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#445

Post by [deleted] »

ninkendo wrote: post #414
perl4ever wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"interviewing myself in a variety of roles to navigate my thoughts on things" I used to from time to time imagine my half of a conversation in which I was showing around someone notable who had traveled through time to get to the present day. Maybe someone from 1,000 years ago or maybe from 50. That is, for entertainment, not to cope with anything. I never felt like my imagination was quite good enough to turn it int…

> I used to from time to time imagine my half of a conversation in which I was showing around someone notable who had traveled through time to get to the present day. Maybe someone from 1,000 years ago or maybe from 50. That is, for entertainment, not to cope with anything. I never felt like my imagination was quite good enough to turn it into fiction. I do this exact same thing. I also have conversations with random…

[deleted]

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#446

Post by loco5niner »

40acres wrote: post #105

Unfathomable to me. My mind is constantly racing, playing out different conversations, interviewing myself in a variety of roles to navigate my thoughts on things (one day I'm the president of the US talking about foreign policy, another day I'm a big tech CEO navigating the diversity questions). I constantly have something in my ears to tune myself out, podcasts or music. After being diagnosed w/ ADHD I realize I'm…

> I constantly have something in my ears to tune myself out, podcasts or music

Careful with this, hearing damage or tinnitus (ringing in the ears) are both dangers. They often come along with each other.

*weird to get a downvote for warning about these dangers... I have both of these and want to help others avoid my mistakes.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#447

Post by kedean »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #441
kedean wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man I can't even imagine. I realize a while back that I don't actually hear music in my head when I have an earworm, instead I hear a representation of it made entirely of what would be vocalized sounds. So if I'm hearing the guitar solo from November Rain, its kind of like someone (me, really) going 'bowwwww owww nah nahhhh nah nahahhhhhhh wan nah nah nah nah wah wah' rather than actual guitar noises, but then it's…

I'd like to explore this aphantasia idea a bit more. I would classify myself as very visual, but on thinking about this more ... it's not like I have a high-fidelity visual impression of the imagined object in my mind's eye. It's more like a physical / tactile impression of presence. Is that what it's like for you? As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking of describing it as ... If I shut my eyes I still know roughly where…

I think in a very spatial way. I can roughly imagine objects or scenes as something like a 3d graph of connected points. I can imagine the facade of my house if I close my eyes only by sort of tracing its shape, in which case I can feel my eyes moving along that dimension as I do it. I cannot imagine a person's actual face, which I'm told is really weird, although I'm very good with recognizing them when I'm shown them. I can generally map out a location as if I was overhead once i've walked through it, but only really as a spatial scene. Closing my eyes is kind of what I imagine its like to be blind.

For very simple objects, I can vaguely visualize them like a drawing from an early 80's graphics demo, but that's about as good as it gets.

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#448

Post by alan_n »

I've always been able to do both, really I would call it all three (abstract, visual, sound). Maybe 4? (I can also imagine taste/smell) Maybe it's because I was bilingual from an early age, but I always knew I was a bit different as I tended to think more visually than others. I can talk to myself and it's more now that I'm older but it's still more visual. And there's also what I would categorize as a third type of thought (which I used confused with visual before but have since noticed it's different) that I use when translating. I don't translate from language A to B directly, but through C, this abstract representation of a sentence. It is sometimes visual but not always (since not all concepts are visual, in which case I just feel an "intent" like in the case of a action or feeling). It is also very rare for me to mix languages in one sentence. I never understood people who did it. To me it's like a literal switch I have to flip, and my thoughts flip to that language as well. I can switch back and forth but it feels computationally expensive. Also now learning a new language I find myself in modes C and the new language, say X when trying to switch to it, instead of my dominant language and X.

Anybody experience anything like that?

Re: Not everyone has an internal monologue

#449

Post by therealdrag0 »

stephen_g wrote: post #278
bradlys wrote: post #253

For those who do inner monologue - I worry about telling you about this. It might make you wish you didn't ever realize it. So.. spoiler in the next sentence. When you start talking in your head, pay attention to your vocal cords and the area around them... Notice anything? They're probably moving like they would if you were actually talking out loud. Have you ever noticed how you tried to talk really fast in your he…

Interesting - while I can make myself do the ‘silent talking’ thing, my normal internal monologue is usually disconnected from my movements basically completely. It’s pretty normal for me to be thinking ahead or of other things to say while speaking at the same time. I do some music gigs here and there, and if I know a song well enough, I find my mind drifting and monologuing on random observations about the venue, o…

I would have just considered that habit. If you are familiar enough with something you don't need to consciously think while you do it, whether it's singing or just going about your day.
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