4 ms·

Today I learned that not everyone has an internal monologue

22 points by LiamPa 7y ago

LukeBMM 7y ago
Came up a few days ago (at a different url, oddly) and the comments are worth looking through. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22193451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22193451
- CarelessExpert 7y ago
  Not that odd, this has turned into a veritable meme in the last week or two... you'd have to live under a rock to have not seen this hit Reddit, HN, Twitter, or some random blog recently.
  - falcolas 7y ago
    I browse all three, and didn’t see this pop up myself. I’m glad it popped up again.
cjjp 7y ago
I had no idea. This has blown my mind almost as much as when I simultaneously discovered that aphantaisa was a thing and that I have it. The biggest thing to come to grips with was the realisation that others don't have it!
- downerending 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
philwelch 7y ago
So I think I deliberately trained myself out of having an internal monologue. I don't have an internal monologue most of the time, but I can definitely turn one on and off when I choose to. I also have a distinct memory related to this. I think I was a teenager at the time, and I don't remember what I was thinking about, but my train of thought got stuck because I couldn't remember the right word for a specific concept. Then I realized--wait a minute, I know what I'm trying to think about even if I don't have the word for it, which means I don't need to use words to think about things! So I stopped using words to think about things.
dunefox 7y ago
And here I always thought I was the only one who basically has a permanent narrator.
- mcphage 7y ago
  Interesting... assuming that everyone else is the same as you is common, but assuming that they aren’t is odd. What made you think that nobody else did?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - dunefox 7y ago
    Idk, I always tended to do that, like talking to myself about topics in order to get a better grasp - it's like self-rubber-ducking. When I asked several people about that, they said they don't do that so I extrapolated. :P
adonese 7y ago
Fun fact: i do think while i'm asleep! my friends were shocked when i first told them about that. I don't know how to describe it, but i can think, alter my dream, reason about things, etc--and i used to do math and solve coding problems too. the worst part is that my dreams are too tough. when i'm sad or something things get very rough on my dreams because everything seem so real.
- jrs235 7y ago
  Lucid dreaming. I have done it too. Sadly, I haven't remembered my dreams in a long time. https://www.google.com/search?q=lucid+dreaming https://www.google.com/search?q=lucid+dreaming
leto_ii 7y ago
Could this simply be a misunderstanding of what an internal monologue is? Is there any science behind this?
downerending 7y ago
Guess I don't, though I do often hear a "speaker" when reading text. Also usually can't recognize faces using System 1. Which means I often don't see someone I know until they've long-since decided that I'm ignoring them. :-/
benmmurphy 7y ago
I'm surprised that some people can't do it at all. I learnt to read aloud first, then read silently which I always remember doing by sub-vocalisation. I would have thought if you could read by sub-vocalisation then you could talk to yourself. Possibly, other people read without sub-vocalisation which I suspect would allow you to read faster.
thelazydogsback 7y ago
I wonder if those people w/o the internal Don Pardo can actually sleep. I wish I could turn mine off...
LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago
Since that other thread seems dead now... I'm one of those people. And from my point of view it would be a terrible burden to have to have that. Because at my speed (or broadness) of thought i imagine i'd have to wind up/fast forward that voice to an incredibly shrill voice, and even then it would be insufficient by several orders of magnitude. It would be like trying to press a river trough a straw. I'm just wondering about how common/uncommon this is. After reading the other thread(s) it 'seems' like the (sub)vocalizers are the majority?

22 points by LiamPa 7y ago

Came up a few days ago (at a different url, oddly) and the comments are worth looking through. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22193451 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22193451

CarelessExpert 7y ago
Not that odd, this has turned into a veritable meme in the last week or two... you'd have to live under a rock to have not seen this hit Reddit, HN, Twitter, or some random blog recently.
- falcolas 7y ago
  I browse all three, and didn’t see this pop up myself. I’m glad it popped up again.

cjjp 7y ago

I had no idea. This has blown my mind almost as much as when I simultaneously discovered that aphantaisa was a thing and that I have it. The biggest thing to come to grips with was the realisation that others don't have it!

downerending 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

philwelch 7y ago

So I think I deliberately trained myself out of having an internal monologue. I don't have an internal monologue most of the time, but I can definitely turn one on and off when I choose to. I also have a distinct memory related to this. I think I was a teenager at the time, and I don't remember what I was thinking about, but my train of thought got stuck because I couldn't remember the right word for a specific concept. Then I realized--wait a minute, I know what I'm trying to think about even if I don't have the word for it, which means I don't need to use words to think about things! So I stopped using words to think about things.

dunefox 7y ago

And here I always thought I was the only one who basically has a permanent narrator.

mcphage 7y ago
Interesting... assuming that everyone else is the same as you is common, but assuming that they aren’t is odd. What made you think that nobody else did?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dunefox 7y ago
  Idk, I always tended to do that, like talking to myself about topics in order to get a better grasp - it's like self-rubber-ducking. When I asked several people about that, they said they don't do that so I extrapolated. :P

adonese 7y ago

Fun fact: i do think while i'm asleep! my friends were shocked when i first told them about that. I don't know how to describe it, but i can think, alter my dream, reason about things, etc--and i used to do math and solve coding problems too. the worst part is that my dreams are too tough. when i'm sad or something things get very rough on my dreams because everything seem so real.

jrs235 7y ago
Lucid dreaming. I have done it too. Sadly, I haven't remembered my dreams in a long time. https://www.google.com/search?q=lucid+dreaming https://www.google.com/search?q=lucid+dreaming

leto_ii 7y ago

Could this simply be a misunderstanding of what an internal monologue is? Is there any science behind this?

downerending 7y ago

Guess I don't, though I do often hear a "speaker" when reading text. Also usually can't recognize faces using System 1. Which means I often don't see someone I know until they've long-since decided that I'm ignoring them. :-/

benmmurphy 7y ago

I'm surprised that some people can't do it at all. I learnt to read aloud first, then read silently which I always remember doing by sub-vocalisation. I would have thought if you could read by sub-vocalisation then you could talk to yourself. Possibly, other people read without sub-vocalisation which I suspect would allow you to read faster.

thelazydogsback 7y ago

I wonder if those people w/o the internal Don Pardo can actually sleep. I wish I could turn mine off...

LargoLasskhyfv 7y ago

Since that other thread seems dead now... I'm one of those people. And from my point of view it would be a terrible burden to have to have that. Because at my speed (or broadness) of thought i imagine i'd have to wind up/fast forward that voice to an incredibly shrill voice, and even then it would be insufficient by several orders of magnitude. It would be like trying to press a river trough a straw. I'm just wondering about how common/uncommon this is. After reading the other thread(s) it 'seems' like the (sub)vocalizers are the majority?