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Inner Speech

plato.stanford.edu

11–20 of 141 posts

Re: Inner Speech

#11
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then, by which mean did you "ask yourself the same" ? Or is it that you cannot imagine a conversation ?

I don't have an inner voice myself. So I asked myself whether the authors of the Plato post can't imagine that.

But what is the experience of "asking yourself something" like for you if you don't literally hear a question being asked in your head?

Re: Inner Speech

#12
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then, by which mean did you "ask yourself the same" ? Or is it that you cannot imagine a conversation ?

I don't have an inner voice myself. So I asked myself whether the authors of the Plato post can't imagine that.

I have inner voice, it's very hard for me to comprehend how can you think, but it's possible. How I understand it: you just write what you think, without rehearsing it before inside your mind. We all do it to some extent when writing, it's not like I actually need to replay everything before I write.

"I asked myself" by a person who has no inner voice sounds like a blind person saying "I see..." when he understands something. It's just a figure of speech, not used in some languages (like polish, we say "I see" ONLY when we actually see something).

Re: Inner Speech

#13
post #3

It's a bit odd reading this because I learned just a few months ago, right here, that I am aphantastic (no mental imagery). Shortly after that, while discussing with some coworkers, I also learned I am anauralic (no inner voice). It appears they do sometimes go together: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8551557/ I think for those of us who don't have an inner voice, section "3.2 The Semantic Content View"…

> So I wonder if the people that wrote this article are unable to fathom that people without an inner voice exist? I asked myself the same. There was a famous Reddit thread a couple years ago from a person who recently learned they did not have an inner voice, which made myself realize I also don't have one. I don't have the link saved and there seem to be a couple of such posts, but this one was pretty impactful in…

[flagged]

Re: Inner Speech

#14
post #11
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have an inner voice myself. So I asked myself whether the authors of the Plato post can't imagine that.

But what is the experience of "asking yourself something" like for you if you don't literally hear a question being asked in your head?

I don't have an inner voice, it's just completely abstract thoughts. I "feel" the interrogation about a subject, just without words.

Re: Inner Speech

#15

It's a bit odd reading this because I learned just a few months ago, right here, that I am aphantastic (no mental imagery). Shortly after that, while discussing with some coworkers, I also learned I am anauralic (no inner voice). It appears they do sometimes go together: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8551557/ I think for those of us who don't have an inner voice, section "3.2 The Semantic Content View"…

Is inner voice the same thing as inner speech? I’m interpreting “inner voice” to be a kind of pseudo-personality similar to what people mean by conscience, while inner speech is simply the mental version of speech. I can understand someone not having an inner voice, but I can’t see how writing is possible without inner speech. Otherwise, how can you have thoughts prior to writing them down? Also note that the article…

I can have thoughts without inner speech or text. Why? Probably it helps that I'm multilingual, I can use several languages (3) more or less indistinctively.

So when I have something to talk about I have the idea in my head, then I have to translate it to written or oral medium. Sometimes it's faulty and I use a different language for certain words, because they convey a more nuanced meaning that better corresponds to my idea, and I have a hard time finding the right word or phrase in the language I need to express myself with.

Inside my head I sometimes have inner speech, sometimes I just have a vivid imagination, sometimes it's concepts, and sometimes it's a mix of it all. For example, my first two paragraphs were translation from concepts, while the first line of this one came more from inner speech (half in Catalan, half in English), and this phrase has started as a mix of concept and inner speech.

Not using inner speech as my main medium also means that sometimes I find hard to understand puns that derive from pronunciation, if they come in the written form. When I read I don't imagine the sounds in my head, so I don't "hear" the words and the puns are missed.

Re: Inner Speech

#16
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So I wonder if the people that wrote this article are unable to fathom that people without an inner voice exist? I asked myself the same. There was a famous Reddit thread a couple years ago from a person who recently learned they did not have an inner voice, which made myself realize I also don't have one. I don't have the link saved and there seem to be a couple of such posts, but this one was pretty impactful in…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: Inner Speech

#17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have an inner voice myself. So I asked myself whether the authors of the Plato post can't imagine that.

I have inner voice, it's very hard for me to comprehend how can you think, but it's possible. How I understand it: you just write what you think, without rehearsing it before inside your mind. We all do it to some extent when writing, it's not like I actually need to replay everything before I write. "I asked myself" by a person who has no inner voice sounds like a blind person saying "I see..." when he understands s…

This may be surprising, but I indeed can "ask myself" (aka. think about) things, without explicitely verbalizing the question in my head. "Thinking" is more abstract, but it can be faster that way.

Re: Inner Speech

#18
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is inner voice the same thing as inner speech? I’m interpreting “inner voice” to be a kind of pseudo-personality similar to what people mean by conscience, while inner speech is simply the mental version of speech. I can understand someone not having an inner voice, but I can’t see how writing is possible without inner speech. Otherwise, how can you have thoughts prior to writing them down? Also note that the article…

Luckily the text editor has been invented giving you the possibility of endlessly editing your sentence until it makes some sense. Only half joking. I'm always impressed by those ancient people who could write long letters by hand in beautiful orthography, composing complex texts and make them just flow linearly. I'm sure here and there there would be a rewriting step involved but that can't have been always the case…

i think it’s a matter of training/habit. Also, back then (educated) people used memory a lot more efficiently; this might have played a role too… i.e. compose and edit the whole text in your mind before writing it down.

Re: Inner Speech

#19
I'm not sure if I have inner voice or not. Do you really "hear" a voice? I can imagine concepts as well as construct whole sentences in my mind but there is no actual voice that I'm hearing. Is this what's called inner voice?

Re: Inner Speech

#20
post #14
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what is the experience of "asking yourself something" like for you if you don't literally hear a question being asked in your head?

I don't have an inner voice, it's just completely abstract thoughts. I "feel" the interrogation about a subject, just without words.

So if I ask you to form an image of a song, (or recall it in your mind): the "happy birthday" song. How vivid or clear is it? Do you have no clarity, some, or lots? is it vivid as the actual sound as if you were hearing it in real life? Do you notice the tune as well as the words?

Now change this image of happy birthday so that it's now a childrens choir singing it. Now change it so its by a bunch of cynical unix grey beards singing it in a convention.

How easy was it to change this image? Did changing it affect the clarity?

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