To ask: do you have an inner-monologue?

[allthatgrace]

I don't have an inner-monologue and never realised that some people do. My thoughts are rapid, abstract and conceptual rather than verbal.

For example, if I am thinking that I'm hungry and want to start making dinner it takes the form of something like: concept of hunger+concept of dinner+concept of it being the evening/dinner time. After speaking to my family members they would have an inner-voice that actually says "I'm hungry, I think I'll go start dinner".

I have also always been confused about the idea of having an inner-critic that berates you. I've never heard an inner-voice say, for example, "nobody cares what you have to say, don't bother speaking, everything you say is stupid", instead I would just feel the sensation of shyness and wanting to stay quiet.

I can make myself have an inner-voice and I will use it occasionally, for example if I'm trying to remember a particular phrase or something but my default thinking is not an inner-monologue.

Which kind of thoughts do you have?

@RowanAlong

It’s not like hearing your own voice on an answerphone. You’re not separate from it. Hard to describe. Thinking in ‘my words’ is closer maybe. Maybe ‘voice’ is the wrong word as it’s too separate from the body somehow?

But your thoughts on a particular thing come into your mind structured in words and sentences, not in the abstract and immediate in their entirety? I am really trying to understand but I suppose it's impossible to understand other people's thought processes.

Structured in words and sentences, yes, but not perfect paragraphs - not like written speech. More like notes up for revision. I’ll have a thought occur, which is in words, i.e. intelligible, I can ‘hear’ it. Then I’ll analyse it, add to it and change it or discard it, it will lead on to other thoughts (that I can hear as sentences).

When you read, do you hear the narrator’s words (not the direct speech/characters) in your head, as your eyes scan the page? The internal voice is a bit like that.

For me anyway!

@RowanAlong

When you read, do you hear the narrator’s words (not the direct speech/characters) in your head, as your eyes scan the page? The internal voice is a bit like that.

No, I don't. That would slow reading down so much because it takes so much longer to say words than to read or think them. I just kind of absorb the words and the concepts they are communicating, bypassing how they might sound entirely.

This is so interesting. Thank you for your replies!

Also, I was thinking when you get really good at a foreign language, people often say they start thinking directly in that language instead of translating, suggesting that they think in, or at least process thoughts in words?

Yes it’s fascinating! I definitely read quickly so again it’s not like I’m saying the words, just hearing them.

That is true. I have several family members who have moved countries and have said that they knew they'd become fluent in the language when they started to think in it. I presumed what they meant was that you think the thought then say it in the new language. Rather than when you are first learning a new language, thinking about the sentence in your native language then mentally translating it into the new one, which was my experience of it. So a new language requiring double translation from thought to native language to new language, which is too slow for conversation. Eventually you can just think then speak words matching the thought in the new language directly. But perhaps I misunderstood their experience of it because we think differently and they were actually structuring thoughts in the new language. I will ask them!!

They have also mentioned having dreams in the new language as a sign of becoming properly fluent. But again I presumed they meant conversations in the dreams. 😂 It's didn't occur to me that they meant thoughts expressed in a particular language, especially in a dream.

If that's the case, does learning multiple languages actually change the way that people with this internal monologue think, change their thought processes?

There's a lot of research showing that learning multiple languages improves IQ and helps you to make new connections between concepts in your brain (unsurprising!). But I have never considered it from the viewpoint of potentially altering how you think, if your thoughts are structured in words rather than just communicated by words.

What a great thread OP!

Mine seems more of a instinct, sorta like you go to do x but sometimes get the feeling that something seems odd about it, no rational reason just a gut feeling, sometimes I've ingored the gut feeling and in some situations the gut feeling I had was correct, it's a mix as to weather to listen to it, other times it's also like you go to do x and it's like a flash forward of an outcome short term based of what that specific task could lead to. Hope that makes sense.

Interesting that you don’t ‘hear’ a book as you read. What about when you know a character to be singing (and you know the tune) or speaking in a Welsh accent, or whispering? Is there no modulation in your head?

Sorry to hijack thread. Really must go to sleep. I’ll be dreaming in my inner voice...

I'd feel quite sad if I ever woke up and suddenly didn't have an Internal monologue and could make images in my head, it can be annoying when I'm really tired but can't sleep due to the thinking 😂. I love making up scenarios that would never happen irl because it's like I'm secretly living in an other world that only I know about with all these characters and adventures, I can spend hours at night making my own mini movie and it'gets me out of a lot of depressing moments. I know the difference between reality and my dream life but both are just as important to me haha, do I sound crazy?.

@RowanAlong

Interesting that you don’t ‘hear’ a book as you read. What about when you know a character to be singing (and you know the tune) or speaking in a Welsh accent, or whispering? Is there no modulation in your head?

Sorry to hijack thread. Really must go to sleep. I’ll be dreaming in my inner voice...

Not when reading, no. I don't think I can recall reading things with people singing off the top of my head. With accents, it doesn't really occur to me, I just form a picture in my mind of the character, but I suppose I focus on the story not how they might sound. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I've never thought about that before. I've recently been reading books set in Italy and another in Greece and I definitely don't imagine accents as I read.

What happens if the person in the book is from a place from which you're not familiar with the accent? Do you make one up in your head for them? Also I am reading these books in English and the people in these situations would actually be speaking Italian or Greek not English with an accent so I can't imagine their actual voices and it's never occured to me to try to!

I think I'm like you op.
It's faster than thinking actual words. I'd have to be slowly and deliberately thinking something out for it to be like that.

For example, I'm not thinking. 'Ooh, it's late, I'd better go to bed.' instead it's glance at clock, sigh, prepare to heft self off sofa.

@Carouselfish

I think I'm like you op. It's faster than thinking actual words. I'd have to be slowly and deliberately thinking something out for it to be like that.

For example, I'm not thinking. 'Ooh, it's late, I'd better go to bed.' instead it's glance at clock, sigh, prepare to heft self off sofa.

Just doing exactly this!

No. I’ve learnt to compartmentalise mentally and either focus or rest. I don’t have a commentary in my head.

‘I'd feel quite sad if I ever woke up and suddenly didn't have an Internal monologue and could make images in my head, it can be annoying when I'm really tired but can't sleep due to the thinking 😂. I love making up scenarios that would never happen irl because it's like I'm secretly living in an other world that only I know about with all these characters and adventures, I can spend hours at night making my own mini movie and it'gets me out of a lot of depressing moments. I know the difference between reality and my dream life but both are just as important to me haha, do I sound crazy?.’

I do all of this and don’t have an internal monologue.

@LibertyMole

‘I'd feel quite sad if I ever woke up and suddenly didn't have an Internal monologue and could make images in my head, it can be annoying when I'm really tired but can't sleep due to the thinking 😂. I love making up scenarios that would never happen irl because it's like I'm secretly living in an other world that only I know about with all these characters and adventures, I can spend hours at night making my own mini movie and it'gets me out of a lot of depressing moments. I know the difference between reality and my dream life but both are just as important to me haha, do I sound crazy?.’

I do all of this and don’t have an internal monologue.

Same. Don't need some internal voice to be imaginative. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Oh, this is fun!

I don't have an internal monologue. I use three languages on a daily basis, speak two more and am somewhat familiar with several others.

The beginner level of learning foreign languages @HalcyonSea describes is really frustrating because of the two step process - verbalising the abstract thought in a "base" language and then translating to the other one.
For me "thinking in X language" was always about being able to directly verbalise my thoughts in that language.

What you might find interesting is that my "mind map" may contain words in different languages and how they relate to each other but I don't hear them.

That's so interesting, thank you for sharing this!

I know small amounts of several languages and have reference concepts that exist in pne language but not in another. I can only imagine how much more of that there would be with your level of language proficiency and multi-lingualism. So interesting.

It’s my inner-monologue keeping me awake tonight and therefore looking on mumsnet for a distraction.

@HalcyonSea
I have those too! They tend to have a preferred verbalisation in the language the concept originates from but it's not just concepts, sometimes the verbalisation itself due to different grammar and idiomatic expressions - for example in English you "are hungry" but in some languages you "have hunger".

I also absorb the meaning of text when reading so when I saw a part of this picture I almost missed the joke until I read some comments and realised what is happening there :)

This thread has fried my brain! I do talk to myself in my head. However, when I try to think about how I think I literally don't know- it's such an unconscious thing and because I'm now thinking about it I'm not doing it naturally 🤣🤣🤣 I'm going to have to catch myself unawares today 🤣

Constant inner monologue here too. It’s more ‘normal’ to have one than not. In fact most neurotypical people do.

I'd be curious to know whether there's any differences in these matters for Deaf people whose 'native language' for communication is BSL or ASL etc but who read and write in English. That's probably getting onto a whole other subject but I suppose the concept of 'inner voice' being 'heard' would be a different experience - and that there would still be different degrees of 'monologue'.