What is it for?

  • 0x0001@sh.itjust.works
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    1 年前

    Not everyone does, I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of people on this topic.

    People’s thought processes range from monologue to dialog to narration to silence to images to raw concepts without form.

    I personally do not have a constantly running monologue, but rather have relatively short bursts of thought interspersed with long periods of silence.

    • I always find this conversation fascinating and it makes me wonder in what other ways people may experience the world differently.

      I do have a constant internal monologue. Every word I read is spoken in my mind. My thought process is, to my awareness, me talking things out in my head.

      • OceanSoap@lemmy.ml
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        11 个月前

        Yeah, I also “hear” the words in my head as I read them, and that goes for everything.

        I kinda wish I thought in shapes and colors though. While my imagination is okay, I get the feeling it’s not as… vivid or Shar as others imaginations are.

      • YashaB@lemmy.world
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        11 个月前

        Me to. This is the first time I think about that. Everything I read or write gets spoken aloud.

        When I am hearing a book or a podcast there is silence though, because when there is someone else talking, my inner voice would interfere.

        Fascinating.

    • adam_y@lemmy.world
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      1 年前

      I don’t have one at all. Spent ages thinking that it was just a figure of speech, but when I found out I became fascinated by it.

      The current theory is that at some early point in our evolution we literally had a voice in our head, not unlike how some forms of schizophrenia present.

      It’s called the bicameral mind.

      https://gizmodo.com/did-everyone-3-000-years-ago-have-a-voice-in-their-head-510063135

      In my day to day life it makes little difference however, despite being an avid reader and writer I struggle tremendously to read aloud.

      I don’t know for sure but I suspect it is connected.

      • naharin@feddit.nu
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        1 年前

        In the article they bring up many questionable aspects of this idea, which also seems to lack in scientific support.

        And so the bicameral mind remains a highly controversial idea

      • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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        1 年前

        In my day to day life it makes little difference however, despite being an avid reader and writer I struggle tremendously to read aloud.

        Thanks, I actually wanted to post that as a question. I would have thought that reading silently would be harder.

        • adam_y@lemmy.world
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          1 年前

          I worked as a typesetter for years. I have a rather speedy reading pace (it isn’t inate, rather through practice)… but I do wonder if not having to ‘hear’ words changes the rhythm of reading.

          I’m also fascinated if other folk perform accents in their head whilst reading? Do different characters sound different or is there one ‘voice’ that acts as a narrator?

          • Ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 年前

            Do different characters sound different or is there one ‘voice’ that acts as a narrator?

            Neither. I think of the idea of the words, rather than hearing the words in my mind. Which is to say, though I can read a sentence and string together the words I read in my mind, the l there is no voice to those words, no gender, no accent, no volume etc.

          • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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            1 年前

            For me different characters have different voices. The narrative is either the voice of the character whose perspective is currently shown (which can lead to conflicts if I don’t know the perspective at the start) or it is how I imagine the author to sound like or my own voice.

            • adam_y@lemmy.world
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              1 年前

              I won’t pretend in not a little jealous of that. I can only imagine the texture that adds to a novel. Plus, it’s like a form of creative collaboration… You are present in the text… How cool is that?

          • RiverGhost@slrpnk.net
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            11 个月前

            I do read extremely fast in my native language (Spanish). Feels like entire sentences go straight into concepts and my brain builds a whole world based on what I’m reading.

            However I started reading in a verbalized way with my second and third languages (English and Swedish) because I was completely useless at pronunciation, while reading at a high level. So I had to learn the sounds and they started invading my reading, which I sort of resent.

            But the verbalization is still very mild; faint, monotone, non-enunciated.

            Some people talked about poetry and I hadn’t considered that my absolute lack of poetry-sense could be related. People have told me about the metrics and whatnot and it really doesn’t click. I have to sort of analyze a poem and explain it to myself in prose, and I imagine that defeats the purpose of poetry?

            • adam_y@lemmy.world
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              11 个月前

              And there’s something else I’m interested in. When you think, do you think in a mixture of those languages? Or do you actively translate? Is it a conscious thing?

              • Hjalmar@feddit.nu
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                11 个月前

                I natively speak Swedish but I’ve studied and used English for 4-5 years so I speak English fluently and would consider myself bilingual. I can think in either English or Swedish and I can mix sentences in Swedish and English freely. But I never think in a language that’s really a combination of those languages (what we would call svengelska in Swedish).

                I’m also studying french and German but I’m not fluent in any of those languages. When using those languages (or at least German) I think in a language that’s truly a combination of that language and Swedish/English. I use words from all languages and construct sentences as I would in Swedish (reverse word order for questions, no weird German thing with adjectives at the end etc). This of course becomes a pain as soon as I have to express a thought to someone else.

          • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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            1 年前

            I do wonder if not having to ‘hear’ words changes the rhythm of reading.

            Hadn’t thought of this…what’s your take on poetry, especially meter-forward? Like, Robert W Service or Robert Frost, I feel would be less interesting if they didn’t have their beat.

            I don’t do voices or accents when I read. Everything is in the same ‘voice,’ which isn’t quite the same as my spoken voice. My internal voice enunciates much better and slightly lower pitch. It’s more like the voice I wish I had than the voice I do have. :)

            • adam_y@lemmy.world
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              1 年前

              Interesting you brought up Service… Grew up reading him as he’s from my home town.

              I do like poetry, but I’m much more inclined to concrete work, or something closer to what William Burroughs was after.

              The shape rather than the rhythm.

              Never thought of it that way. Though I still adore Service for the narrative.

              I like that your internal monologue is an idealised voice.

          • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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            11 个月前

            I am pretty sure it does. From what I’ve heard people that essentially “read out loud” inside their head tend to have a have a slower reading pace. I don’t think Anauralia is necessary to not do that, either.

          • 0ops@lemm.ee
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            11 个月前

            Oh yeah, often I’ll even have a specific person in mind playing the character: an actor, someone I know, etc. I often don’t even realize that I’m doing this

          • elephantium@lemmy.world
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            11 个月前

            if not having to ‘hear’ words changes the rhythm of reading.

            Poetry instantly comes to mind. I have a very different experience when I silently read poetry vs. reading aloud or listening to someone read it aloud, especially when the poem is written with rhythm in mind.

          • lordnikon@lemmy.world
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            8 个月前

            it depends on if I heard a voice of that character before for example Batman is always Kevin Conroy and the joker is always Mark Hamill. another usecase is if I listened to the audio book then start reading a text book. Ray Potter shows up alot.

      • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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        11 个月前

        Out of curiosity do you visualize in your mind? Like if I say a stapler can you conjure one?

        The people with both Aphantasia and Anauralia fascinate me.

        • Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world
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          11 个月前

          I’ll chuck in my answer since I’ve been asked this before too.

          I don’t “see” a stapler. I perceive a future state where the pages are stapled. This does appear visually in my mind but not a a a picture of stapled pages rather a set of symbols that incorporate the task “to staple” into the other things that I am concerned with at the point of thinking about that task.

          “Set of symbols?” Is probably your follow up question - yes, geometry or iconography that describe the path from here to that future state where that pages are stapled.

          That’s the best I can do. None of this is literally narrated in my mind, however typing this out to you each sentence is “auditioned” as I imagine I am speaking it to you.

          • NaN@lemmy.sdf.org
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            11 个月前

            That is fascinating! And different than I’ve heard described elsewhere by either the “non-visual” or “non-verbal” thinkers. I think I am pretty generic, when I think of a stapler I literally see a red swingline stapler floating in a void like in a 3d modeling program (that stapler specifically due to the movie Office Space, and therefore I also own one).

              • Wolf_359@lemmy.world
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                11 个月前

                Makes total sense to me that you think this way then.

                I teach middle school and I think mostly verbally with pictures thrown in.

                “I should staple this” plays in my head and I have a dreamlike image of a stapler I’m looking for, or perhaps its location. If I focus, I can make those pictures very vivid, but usually they aren’t in my day to day.

                I talk to myself in my head literally non-stop. It’s a full day dialogue with myself - which I suppose makes it a monologue. But it’s pretty involved with a lot of back and forth.

                • Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world
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                  11 个月前

                  It’s so interesting. I imagine your experience is something like Venoms relationship with Eddie Brock which cracks me up!

        • adam_y@lemmy.world
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          11 个月前

          Absolutely. My day job is as a conceptual artist (seriously, the hours are good and I get to travel). Visualising objects is a large part of that. I’ve also worked in video game level design and found thinking in terms of 3D space pretty easy too. Just no words in there, or specifically, no voice.

    • TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      That sounds heavenly. Mine will not shut up. And when I’ve run out of current problems to worry about, I start thinking about all my past fuck ups an embarrassments. And that’s just in the time it takes to a simple activity. When I’m at work it is constant flipping back and forth between my anxious thoughts and doing my work and worrying about how I might be fucking up my work.

      • Surp@lemmy.world
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        11 个月前

        Try vyvanse meds bro it will calm those thoughts. Obviously talk to a doctor about it

        • TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world
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          11 个月前

          I truly wish there was someone who could properly diagnose me. I did take a RAADS test a while back but I didn’t have a psychiatrist to bring my results to, so I go undiagnosed and likely will forever with the current health crisis. I don’t know if I can go on something like that without a proper diagnosis. I can’t even find a family doctor unfortunately.

          But I appreciate the tip 😊 thank you.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 年前

      Mine seems to appear when I’m not on auto-pilot. If I’m heating a can of soup, there’s no real thought. I’m probably thinking about other things while carry out simple steps. If I can’t find something, it’ll pop in and say, “Where did I leave that?” Or maybe something like, “I should call Mom cause it’s New Year’s Day.” Another is, “I’m glad I remembered my umbrella,” when in rain. But I don’t have monologue about putting on my shoes or locking my door. Those are mechanical tasks while I think about something else in an abstract fashion.

      • celeste@kbin.social
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        11 个月前

        Yeah this is similar to my experience. Some stuff gets done without that monologue, but I’m not completely without it.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      I suspect that most people have a partial internal monologue, whereby some thoughts arise to the level of verbiage and others don’t. There is also variance in how self-aware we are of our thoughts themselves. I don’t think anyone can keep up effective, meta self-monitoring 100% of the time, so our own view of our thought process is probably skewed as well. Some people swear that every single thought they have is 100% verbalized. I think that’s impossible and they’re only counting verbal thoughts as thoughts. But no doubt some people verbalize more than others.

      • 0x0001@sh.itjust.works
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        11 个月前

        Insightful, I’ve found that most people change their answers at least slightly after having time to observe their thoughts for a while, we are geniuses at believing our own conjectures.

        • BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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          11 个月前

          I’d say I can’t actively observe a thought without my internal monologue in some way narrating it or articulating what’s going on. Frankly that’s the reason I have difficulty understanding what it’s like for someone without internal monologue.

          • scarabic@lemmy.world
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            11 个月前

            I’ve been able to observe myself stringing ideas together in a complicated way before actual words can land. The other day this happened and I considered stopping to put words to my thought and decided to just let it go and move on.

    • AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world
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      1 年前

      Yep, I don’t, either. I think mostly subconsciously, then in raw concepts, then images, then words. I have to actively translate what I’m thinking into language in order to consciously understand it myself or communicate it, but I do better if I externalize the language through writing or speaking.

      • adam_y@lemmy.world
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        11 个月前

        We’re very similar, I think. That externalisation as a way of understanding in particular.

    • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      I have a mixture of types of thought processes. I mostly think in pictures and play things out in my head like a silent movie, but sometimes I have a monologue. Sometimes I think in a way I can’t describe with words.

  • slazer2au@lemmy.world
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    1 年前

    Because sometimes the rubber ducky would be embarrassed at the questions I ask so I ask me the questions first.

  • bstix@feddit.dk
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    1 年前

    I think one key in the success of our species is the ability to plan ahead and mentally simulate what will happen before actually doing it.

    Doing this with language is not very different from imagining what will happen when doing a physical action.

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      I have imaginary conversations all the time where I simulate interactions with the people in my life and work. I’ll say something and then imagine their response and often go back and revise what I would say. This is how I prepare for conversations that might be delicate, where I want to get something across but not in a way that creates negative consequences.

      Other people say that they verbalize literally everything, as in, “I need to throw this rock in a gentle arc if I want it to hit that other rock there, oh dear perhaps I should adjust my grip and throw underhand instead.” My opinion is that this is functionally impossible. You can’t drive a car by verbalizing every command as you go - put a blindfolded friend at the wheel and try it sometime! I think one of two things is happening to people who say their monologue is exhaustive: they are only counting verbal thoughts as thoughts and ignoring the sea of inchoate impulses that churns beneath them. Also, I think any time we turn our attention to our thoughts themselves, those thoughts become verbal. To say it another way, any thought you want to think about you have to first pin down and define. You render it in words by directing your attention to it. I believe this leads people to believe that all their thoughts are verbal because all the thoughts they’ve looked at are always verbal.

      But I’d say this to those folks: have you ever forgotten the right word for something? There it is on the tip of your tongue but the word won’t come. This happens to everyone. And you’re clearly able to think about the whatness of the thing even in absence of the right word.

  • Hjalmar@feddit.nu
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    11 个月前

    Truly nobody knows, it’s an open research question. And to complicate matters more we know (as others have mentioned here) that everyone doesn’t think in the same way.

    • Art35ian@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      I can offer you a very small example of a difference in thinking that I experience.

      I’m a grown ass man and I can’t easily tell my left from right. The best example of this is when I’m gaming and the tutorial tells me to press ‘left thumb stick’, I usually fuck it up. It took me a long time and a lot of thinking on it to realise what was going on. For me, left and right is not instinctive like up or down, but rather, it’s either a feeling, or not a feeling.

      The reason for this is because when I was 5 I nearly lost my left index finger in an accident. It was reattached, but during the healing process I was constantly told my left finger was the one I hurt, so I literally learnt left from right as ‘injury’ or ‘no injury’, which I then attributed to as ‘hurt’ or ‘not hurt’.

      So now, when I have to choose left or right, my brain has to remember an injury and where it was, then kind of feel that injury and tell myself that yes, I feel it so that’s left, or no, I feel nothing so that’s right. These steps take more time than a normal person’s automatic reaction to left or right direction.

      Imagine someone touching you and saying, “does this hurt”. It takes time to figure out if it hurts or not and then reply. Thats what I’m doing every time I need to identify left or right, and if there’s no time for that, like “quick, make a right turn here”, I’m forced to guess.

      And there is no way for me to unlearn this.

    • FelipeFelop@discuss.online
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      11 个月前

      We do actually know quite a bit about the Internal Monologue and other forms of intrapersonal communication.

      There isn’t one single use for it or benefit of it (in the same way water has many uses)

  • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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    11 个月前

    As an aside, there is a theory called the “bicameral mind” which posits that this internal dialogue is the source of religion. In ancient or rather even prehistoric times, it’s theorized that people started separating themselves from the voices in their heads in a spiritual way and this gave rise to the concept of a “God”.

    Far from proven but interesting nonetheless.

    • BeautifulMind ♾️@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      One interesting corollary to the bicameral mind theory is that our brains have multiple sentient centers to them- that in turn might explain that feeling of struggling with a decision and being able to see the same thing from more than one point of view. It also explains why different parts of the brain light up in different situations

      • clockwork_octopus@lemmy.world
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        11 个月前

        I’ve never heard of that idea before, but it’s really interesting! I wonder how they’d be able to prove something like that?

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    11 个月前

    What I find interesting is that supposedly, not everybody actually has an internal monologue, I just can’t even imagine what that must be like. But then I start to wonder, do I even have an internal monologue, is what I experience an actual “internal monologue”? I assume that I have an internal monologue, I definitely talk to myself and I have thoughts running around my head all the time, but I don’t know that I “hear” an internal monologue or what having an internal monologue is supposed to be like. Is what I experience the same thing as what everybody else is experiencing?

    • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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      11 个月前

      I hate to sound heartless, but haven’t you met anyone that isn’t that bright? Like they may have a heart of gold but they couldn’t figure out a math equation if they were given all day. There are high school graduates that can’t even find directions on a compass for a map. I imagine that the lower end of intelligence does not have a inner monologue. And some other fringe reasons.

      • clockwork_octopus@lemmy.world
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        11 个月前

        It seems to me that you’re attempting to equate an internal monologue with intelligence, and I don’t think that’s a fair assumption. An internal monologue is just a brains way of formatting its thoughts and feelings about the information that flows in. There are many ways to do this, and one way isn’t necessarily “superior” to another. That’s just how brains work. And while many intelligent people do have this internal monologue, it’s absolutely not necessary for intelligence.

        Side note, one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met is aphasiac, and doesn’t have an internal monologue.