What do you think?
Dogs dream, and dreams are just thoughts.
They don’t have language, so they can’t have the internal dialogue.
But can they have imagination? Since many animals have dreams, then why not?
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My dog’s would often woof and move their paws on their dreams.
None of them have language beyond associating a small number of specific sounds or words to objects or events but I would bet my legs just above the knee down that Dolphins monologue “Squee-aww” when they spot a scuba diver. Dogs definitely daydream about you calling their name when you’re away for a long time. If they couldn’t in some way internalize the call then they would not remember it.
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I think they do
Wait, you have a little voice in your head??
Not sure if meta or real.
Yeah you know like the evil and the angel of the cartoons…
Not everyone has a voice in their head. Do you have a cat? Cats have thoughts. Unfortunately that thought is sometimes, “eff you, human!”
What do you mean about “not everyone has a voice in their head”? I have one… I would like to research more about this topic.
What do you mean about “not everyone has a voice in their head”?
Well, what do you think it means?
I believe it would be interesting to talk about this with someone wo inner monologue.
I do not have an internal monologue.
This has been at least discussed/studied before but I don’t know if there has been any sort of formal poll to find a rate between those that do and those that don’t.
There are some studies. I don’t remember the specifics but it’s something like 50/50 on hearing and seeing and about 20 percent do neither. I’m sure those numbers are off, but that’s vaguely what i remember reading.
What do you mean by seeing? Like they don’t see images in their mind?
Some people do. Many of us don’t.
We don’t.
I have to ask - in what way do you think about stuff? Especially whem you need to be mindful of a process or remember something?
Mine is just chunks of info or ideas. My coworkers think this is why i talk a lot unfiltered- because i don’t hear how it will sound it in my head before it comes out of my mouth. There’s a little test online that was going around for awhile where you try to visualize a red star and grade it 1-5.
I still think in words and images, but there is no voice.
Something else that came up in previous discussions. I remember emotional response more than specific things. For example, my wife can remember what we wore, what we ate, and other specifics, of a date we had years ago. I barely remember even the location, but I can easily recall that I was happy about the date, but there was some mild frustration early on, something about the restaurant, but then feeling better about it later.
I say this and my wife says, “Oh yeah, we were annoyed because we had reservations but still had to wait 20 minutes, but then we were given an appetizer.”
However, before my comments, she couldn’t recall if we liked the place or not.
I’ll remember if I liked someone, but not why or even their name.
I am curious how many people don’t have an inner monologue, but there are a few articles on the subject. Here’s one at random.>
Thx for the info…
There are also people who are unable to see images in their mind. In case you want to go further down the rabbit hole.
Do you know if it’s some kind of mental illness? I mean some kind of human abnormality, or do you believe there are a lot of people like that?
My MIL and to some extent my husband are like that. It was painful discussing design plans with them when we reno’d our kitchen. I just started doing mood boards so they could see what I had in my head that I wanted it to look like.
I’m terrible at decorating!! After 20+ years in my house most of my walls have pictures that are sentimental to me but not visually connected in any way.
There are a lot of us.
We function just fine. Seeing images or hearing voices in your mind is not required for any task I’m aware of.
My theory is that there’s no such thing as neurotypical.
Neurotypical is just the statistical average of all the different ways we’re fucked in the head.
i.e. Half have anxiety, the other half have depression and we just assume normal is somewhere in the middle.
My cognition is mixed. Verbal inner monologue is going most of the time when I’m just thinking about routine stuff. But if I’m “in the flow zone” working on a project or playing music or something like that, the little “voice in my head” vanishes completely and that’s when I’m the happiest. I suspect most people can relate to those modes.
That’s relatable to me at least. And often music is playing my my head in the place of my inner voice.
Agreed, now that I think about it. It’s definitely better to be in the zone. If I’m monologuing I think it might signify that I’m having trouble with something, but I don’t necessarily enjoy being that aware of my own self.
Many of us don’t. Many of us also don’t see images in our minds.
Animals have thoughts, that is clear as day.
Inner Monolog? In a way. But not like us because they don’t speak English motherfucker.
But it’s possible to have thoughs if you don’t have inner monologue?
Bro, not even all people have an inner monologue. There are many different modes to process thoughts.
Yes. A thought can be a picture.
And I don’t say that they don’t have inner Monolog. It wouldn’t be like ours because that depends on the language we use.
A dogs inner Monolog would be barking I guess.
I would say that animals have thoughts, yes. But I don’t think that they have an inner monologue or voice.
You could probably ask someone who has no inner voice. I think animals might be more similar to that.
Have you ever been close to a cat? I cant believe they can be wacky like this without some sort of inner monologue and intention.
I’m not sure about all animals, but I’m pretty sure my sphinx cat does. I have to give her medicine every day and not only does she knows when it’s time to get it, but there are times where she will hide under the bed. Just laying down and looking at her and asking her to come out is enough to get her to wander over slowly and get it. It’s funny, you can almost see the thoughts going through her head as she realizes she has to just give in and go get her pill.
I would say all living things have some form of thought and consciousness. Even those that lack brains like plants.
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Humans are animals.
True though they may be, there’s no benefit to mentioning that in this situation.
I was making the point on the notion that we might be alone in that vs animals. If you don’t distinguish man from other animals, why would you assume that they couldn’t?
they
… So what sort of non-human are you? 🧐
He’s a cat.
Why would anyone think that thought is unique to humans? Seems absurd to a frightening degree.
The voice in my head requires complex language and symbolism. I don’t doubt that they’re capable of thought, just like Helen Keller was capable of thought before having language, but I doubt that it’s like the “little voice” in my head.
Not even all humans have that little voice.
In a way that scares me, but it would explain how we have so many different ways of looking at life.
I’m one of the people who doesn’t have a little voice. It weirds me out that other people do.
When you think about what you’re going to write, do you compose any of it in your head first?
Like, this sentence I am writing after I thought the first half of it in my brain. The rest of this paragraph I’m writing one word at a time, but I still imagine each word.
Oh no. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just my existence. It just streams out of my brain, through my fingers instantaneously. There is no first half second half.
Although I am a known terrible writer.
Worth noting, this is normal from my perspective. I think all of you are the weird ones.
Do you ever speak to yourself out loud?
Nope
I don’t believe this. I know this is supposedly true, but I feel like people are lieing just to feel special or something.
How can someone not have a head voice? If one needs to go to the supermarket, does one not think “humm… What do I need… I need bananas, toilet paper…”…
I have a head voice, but not all the time, I see images, but not all the time, I can hear music in my head, most of the time.
When I write things down, I often speak the sentence in my head as I write it, but sometimes the words just fall out of me with no voice leading them
when im planning a food shop, I visualise the shop and walk around it in my head so I put the items I want in the right order on my list. When working out what i need it’s a combination of visualising the fridge/freezer and cupboards and physically looking in them to see what I have and then looking at my meal plan to see what I need. The meal plan i made by just sensing what im craving that week.
When I learn to play a song, I hear the music in my head and can sound that out to work out chords and melodies.
When I compose music, I can hear the next chord I want in my head and then have to sound that out on my instrument.
When I make silly videos to send to my family group chat, I think visually.
People are just different. If you struggle with that concept, then I feel sorry for you.
You say it’s for people to feel special, I say it seems to me that it’s more you feeling like you aren’t special because you wish you could think the way other people do.
In reality, it doesn’t matter how you think. I envy my wife as she is much smarter and more organised than me, but she can’t visualise anything or hear music in her head and thinks more systematically. She is jealous that I can do these things.
We both agree it’s silly.
While I have an inner monologue, I’m also able to shut it down and still think. The inner voice is likely an artefact of how we learn. So much learning is done by voice instruction that it becomes the default for most people.
Fantastic attitude. Do you always discount things you’re too stupid to understand as lies or is this a special case?
When I used to come out of the closet as a teenager, this was a common response: “it’s not real” or “you’ve decided to do this”.
It didn’t occur to me I could have righteous indignation about it, but it did lead to me to a place where I’m still enthusiastically delighted/shocked/vindicated when straight people literally don’t care about gays, or aren’t disgusted by gays, or when they wish noncishet people happy anniversary.
I’ve never had an inner monologue and I’ve had a conversation with a friend (who has an inner monologue) about this. He said the same thing about “specialness”, but I don’t really understand why one would be more or less special than the other.
It’s just simply another way to be.
And to answer your question, I go with a list and go and look for what I wrote down. Usually it’s images that go through my mind rather than a structured sentence, which makes no sense to me - but I don’t think it’s unspecial or anything!
People with neurodivergences ranging from mild autism to major life-ruining conditions have been hearing “I don’t believe you, you’re just doing for attention” forever, and it’s a crappy and potentially very harmful position for someone outside the situation to take.
Do you see things in your brain?
And maybe reflect a little bit on why you immediately reject the experiences of others just because they differ from your specific one?
Are you able to visualize? I have an inner monologue but no ability to visualize
I can visualize and have an inner monologue, I was just pointing out that not everyone does.
Sorry, I hope I didn’t come off as aggressive! I just think it’s amazing all the different ways people think.
