Comment by tcgv

18 hours ago

Do you have an internal monologue?

I don't. I seem to think at a more abstract, pre-verbal level rather than through an internal voice.

Some studies suggest that frequent internal monologue may occur in roughly 30–50% of people [1], but the research is based on relatively small samples.

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intersections/202304...

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tcgv

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sanex  15 hours ago

FWIW I have ADHD and my internal monologue just will not shut up. I don't exclusively think in words but I do think in a lot of words.

pvab3  18 hours ago

I have different modes depending on what I'm doing, but I think usually I'm reasoning non-verbally

glenstein  9 hours ago

I honestly don't think that people's self reports of whether they have an internal monologue are super reliable. They can mean different things by it or be psychologically attached to a particular representation of their thought processes, it can be related to self concept or self esteem or personal perspective in ways that are hard to tease out.

I think something like this proved to be true when it came to folk theories of different learning styles (e.g. visual vs language based) once those started being tested in rigouros ways. People could still be right but I would be interested to see what we get if we test more directly for subvocalization or fmris for language based brain activity.