Down a research Wormhole: Internal Monologues
It all started with a meme about internal dialogue- the meme stated that not everyone had an inner voice, only those with mental illness. Which then led to... the rabbit hole. Is this true?
I have such a strong inner voice that occasionally I will make motions or act out whatever is going on in my head.... is that a result of some undiagnosed mental illness?
Possibly. But I haven't found any evidence that the meme was actually true. Based on my research, mental illness isn't a result of your inner voice going "haywire"- it's a result of not realizing that your inner voice is internal and not external.
During my academic free-fall, I was especially fascinated by the development of the internal voice and how it shapes your thinking and motivation. As a teacher, this has some deep implications for learning. Apparently, as children develop language from speaking to their parents, they will also begin talking to themselves. As they age, this becomes less socially acceptable and they begin to internalize the monologue. This speaks to the need for high level language models on a regular basis so that students can use more academic vocabulary in writing and speaking. Surely speech is essential to brain development. Additionally, students need to practice all this language a lot in speaking and writing so that the internal monologue is then altered to use higher level thought- because the more language ones has, the more ideas one has.
Other fascinating ideas...
Your internal monologue speaks in the same accent you do. They tested this by having people read limericks to themselves and monitoring their eye movements. When lines didn't rhyme inside a person's head, their eyes would twitch- thus they could test if their inner voice had an accent. I caught my internal voice using "like" as a verbal placeholder today, and it was the strangest thing.... The thoughts inside my head needed some time to think about what they were saying. And then another thought inside my head was thinking about the way the other thought inside was head was talking.
By Sunravelme
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I think everyone has an internal dialog just more or less. I dont think that means the person has mental illness.
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Agreed! At least I hope so, because I have some pretty strong voices in my head. It was a meme that I came across- I think it might be a form of trolling, or perhaps gas lighting.
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An individual without an internal monologue would be acting solely on instinct or programming. I have never met someone who claimed to lack a voice in their head.
Children often think out loud and must learn to cultivate an inner monologue and discern what is better said inside the head and what is safe to speak, what should be acted out and what should be left undone. We say people who lack this inner dialogue have impulse control issues. I would say lacking an inner monologue suggests a lost developmental opportunity.
A very interesting post, Kara:)
Through my research, there have been some commenters who said they lacked an inner voice and that it was weird that others had someone in their head. I don’t know that I’ve ever asked anyone about the voices in their head (but now I want to) but I have never met anyone in person who mentioned it one way or another. I’m curious if this is something that could be developed- If a person doesn’t have one, could they be taught to create one?
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When I was a teacher and with my son. I encourage the development of one. I mean isn't that sort of what like reading to yourself is?
Yes, exactly! I might talk to my students more about their inner voice- now I’m curious how many have stronger or weaker ones and if this correlated to academic achievement.
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Some really interesting information here. I've always had that internal voice. Sometimes it's hard to get it to shut up.
It is! Now that I’m more aware of it lately though, it’s been quieter.
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I think everyone has an internal dialog just more or less. I dont think that means the person has mental illness.
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I agree! Having not talked to many people about the voice in their head, it was one of those things that needed some research. I didn’t find any evidence that it was a sign of mental illness
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