How do people without one form thoughts, then? Without using words???
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You can do that too. After all, how do you know what words to use in your internal monologue?
Have you ever been at a loss for words or had trouble putting what you are thinking into words? That shouldn’t be possible if all thought was an internal monologue, you could just repeat your thoughts out loud.
In fact *most* of your thinking is done without an internal monologue, even for you who is having trouble comprehending it. For example look out your window and describe it in great detail. The objects, their color, shape, material, use, position relative to each other, the overarching concept of the scene, etc. Everything you understand about the scene try to write down.
Notice how when you glanced out the window you understood all that in an instant, without an internal monologue rattling off the whole description at light speed? Notice how it took a while to explain everything you understood about a particular object in words? That is all because most of the time, in fact almost *all* the time, you are not thinking in words.
People without an internal monologue are just thinking how you do 99.9% of the time, 100% of the time.
Try internally screaming( if you can’t, try making it static) right now, with your internal monologue. And read the other guys comment, you would still understand it.
I did , just to prove a point
Our internal monologue just put our thoughts into words, the thinking still happens in the background.
I still have trouble understanding whats meant by that. From definitions I’ve seen, I don’t think I have one. So some personal thoughts:
If I’m reading something, I say the words in my head, or almost like speaking them, but not enough to make it a sound, more like miming the sound (hard to explain). But I don’t hear my own voice doing it, nor as a character. I’m a very slow reader.
If I’m working on some type of speech or things I need to tell someone, I’ll think about what I need to say. Its closer to how I read (as mentioned above), more than hearing my voice in my head. I definitely don’t do that.
If I’m working through a problem, I usually think or visualize the way to solve it. Sort of like working out a blueprint, or dragging through google maps seeing whats around the area, and where I’d need to go, etc.
If I’m thinking about what to make for dinner, I think about: whats in the fridge?, what I could make out of those things?, do I need extra ingredients?, how long will each possibility take? But I’m not speaking or hearing anything doing this really. Its more of picturing whats in the fridge from memory (not exactly, but for sake of description), or how the meal will come out from experiencing how its come out before, etc. I remember different parts of it… from seeing the food in the fridge, remembering how I grabbed it in the store, seeing the food made in a show/commercial/picture, etc.
Not sure how else to explain it. Hope that helps a bit. I can answer any specific questions I suppose.
I may have reached a state of thought without words on the bicycle. Usually I think I have a fairly robust internal voice, or monologue. Even listening to a podcast or radio speech, I sort of scroll the words across my consciousness, even to the extent of spelling them.
Sometimes on the bike, I’ll have extended periods of time without the usual words, where I’m just reacting to the road and cars, shifting and pedaling. I think the degree of bandwidth required to ride may make it easier to not think about other stuff. It’s just you and the world. Also, now that I’ve put this into words, it’s probably just a flow state, like when you are doing an intricate craft or other activity, and you’re not really thinking about anything else.
What would be cool would be to do this while just sitting there doing nothing
Probably the same way some people have Aphantasia (the inability to visualize things in one’s mind). Those of us who can do it can’t imagine what it would be like to be unable to do it, and those of us who can’t do it can’t really imagine what it would be like to do it. Brains are kind of weird and they can function in all sorts of weird varying ways from person to person.
Like, take someone who was deaf from childbirth… unable to hear, unable to know what words ***sound*** like. What would their internal monologue be? Images? Sign language? A rolling ticker of words? (I’m admittedly now really curious as the answer to this)
Things like this tend to be really hard to explain precisely because brains can be wired differently from person to person. It’s like trying to describe a sense (like taste, sight, sound, smell, etc) to someone who couldn’t utilize that sense from birth. They have no reference point to compare it to, so they cannot really imagine what it’s like… or vice versa with us, having that sense, what it’s like to develop without it.
What does it mean to *not* have an internal dialogue? To be completely unable to imagine voices?
I usually think without “speaking” to myself, but sometimes I imagine different while reading or “speak” to myself while thinking, but it’s usually abstract images and concepts.
I’m not sure if I have inner monologue or not. I know I have mild or severe aphantasia regarding images.
When I’m reading/writing something, there is an inner monologue, like I’m talking out loud each word, just like now while I’m typing this. But let’s say I intend to break some bad news to my wife. There is no inner monologue on how I plan to do it, but I will rehearse it beforehand, trying to predict exactly what words I will say and her reaction. There is an inner monologue when I do that, I will speak with my voice the words and speak with my wife’s voice her probable words. To be clear, I read in other people’s answers when this question was asked and people say it’s like another voice telling them stuff, like it’s someone else and not themselves. That’s not what happens to me. I’m just “vocalizing” what I will say or hear, nothing more.
Now, when it comes to things not related to reading/writing or talking/listening, there is no voice at all (at least I think so). I will conjure up images or “playbacks” of whatever I’m thinking about and vocalize my thoughts sometimes, like putting post-its on some pile of papers to identify them and make sense of them, but I won’t, for example, think about buying another CPU and vocalize to myself “I should buy another CPU”. I just think about it, no voices at all. I can’t explain it better.
Maybe if I explain how my aphantasia manifests it will be more clear for those reading this: when I read something, like the description of Kvothe in The Name of the Wind, I form a very fleeting image of my interpretation of that description. There is no movement, not like a video. It doesn’t last more than a second or two. It’s very… misty, and with washed colors. It’s like you are somewhere very dark, no moon, no stars, and there is fog/mist all around you. You can’t see even the mist, except when a lightning bolt flashes the sky for a fraction of a second and a flash of your surroudings burn into your retina for a second. That is how I form images. When I try to manipulate an image in 3 dimensions, like for example right now I’m trying to rotate an apple in my mind, what happens is a series of flashes, each with a slight different angle of the apple in sequece, like a really slow movie, or better yet, like a fast moving power point presentation. But there is no motion per se, not in a continuous way like a video. It’s hard to explain. It’s like explaining how I see the color red.
Sorry if I could’t clarify. Still, I’m not sure if I have inner monologue or not.
So, I have aphantasia and usually think without words. My thoughts are kind of hard to explain, but they’re like instincts or feelings. When I’m trying to remember someone, I remember how they feel, how they make me feel, their presence, as well as an idea of their general shape. I don’t actually see the shape, but think of the idea of the shape.
If I’m trying to remember something I needed to do, I mentally go back to what I was doing earlier, and kind of fast Forward through the day until I get to the point where I thought about doing that thing. When I’m doing this, I’m just quickly cycling through everything I felt, to include the surroundings.
If I really need to focus on things that are pretty language oriented, such as making a list, or talking, then I can think in words. Thinking in words is a lot slower and also more difficult for me though.
Have you ever had a word “on the tip of your tounge” you know the concept but can’t map it to a word?
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