Do you hear your own audible voice when you think?

[RaymondG]

Yeah... I would have to say it is a nondescript voice. It is male, even if the person in the book is female. It is adult, even if the person in the book is a child. The syntax, I suppose, is my own. But I would say it does not have the tonal quantities of my voice. Stephen Pinker has some interesting thoughts in his books about language and speech.
A good follow up question would be: What voice does a mute person hear in their head when they think?
But my big question is this: Does your speaking voice sound like the voice you hear in your thoughts? My does not. Like I said above. I was shocked the first time I heard my voice on a recording. Really surprised. I had no idea what I really sounded like! If my voice sounded like my thought voice... I would not have been surprised.
Hmmmm?

Yes, so it seems that you are the way I expected everyone was. The "voice," I recognize as My voice, but it could be different when heard on recording.....but sounds the same to me when I hear my speaking voice through my ears...as Im speaking. This is oddly hard to put in words.

In FACT....sometimes when I write posts.....since im reading aloud in my head....i sometimes read the sentence too fast and I miss typing a word......and then have to add the word after a subsequent reading of the sentence!

I would think a mute person would hear a voice with no issue......it is the deaf person whose hearing would puzzle me....

 

[RaymondG]

Okay, you get to turn to Church TV.

Meanwhile, I think it's a very elegant explanation for having two voices in your head. I'm still working on the other eight.

This thread is not about two voices in your head......It is only one voice....."your voice".....which I recently discovered, some dont have.

 

[RaymondG]

Okay, you get to turn to Church TV.

Meanwhile, I think it's a very elegant explanation for having two voices in your head. I'm still working on the other eight.

ahh, i see some confusion......I meant "Now see this" not "Not see this" The post has been corrected....I may have spoken too fast in my head....

 

[Kaon]

...It is only one voice....."your voice".....which I recently discovered, some dont have.

My mind is still blown. I thought the "crazy" limit was hearing your voice + [an agreed upon number of] other voices. I am amazed some people do not hear a voice - and especially amazed by the different means of communication (i.e. text scroll similarity) that the brain can create to convey a message to self.

To extend the question, can the people that do not hear/converse with their own voice will sound to appear in the brain? So far, I have heard mechanisms for how sound is perceived for us in this thread, but can you will yourself to speak if you wanted to?

I would consider myself a philosopher first (stoicism), but it never occurred to me to ask a question like the OP - I have been presumptuous for a while!

 

[RaymondG]

but can you will yourself to speak if you wanted to?

Good question......because I still think its possible that we all hear....and some just dont view thoughts as a voice speaking???? maybe a semantics issue?

Then again, I am able to reproduce almost anything I hear on the keyboard....and there are many who cant understand how it is done........even those who can sight read music sheets. Im wondering if their lack of ability to sing or hum sounds in their head can cause this confusion.

On another note.... I know a lot of bi-lingual people and, one day, I became curious as to which language they thought in. Most stated that it was their mother tongue...... not one stated that they do not hear any voice in there head.

Seems like semantics to me....

 

[Kaon]

Seems like semantics to me....

I would like to think so, but I think some people actually don't hear anything.

 

[Nithavela]

This thread is not about two voices in your head......It is only one voice....."your voice".....which I recently discovered, some dont have.

Now that's just sad.

 

[RaymondG]

I would like to think so, but I think some people actually don't hear anything.

What would be your guess/opinion as to the reason for this?

 

[essentialsaltes]

There's a meme or twitter thread floating around about this, and yes it seems the two camps find it hard to imagine being in the other.

I think it's better to phrase this as 'having an inner monologue' as opposed to 'hearing your own voice when you think'.

I definitely have a voice, but it is not quite like hearing. If I imagine the sound of the roadrunner's Meep Meep or Beethoven's 9th, I can definitely perceive the sound-i-ness of it. The timpani sound like timpani, not like the 'idea of timpani'. At the same time it is not like actually hearing Beethoven's 9th. Similarly for this inner voice.

It certainly seems to be my voice, though I can make it speak with an accent.

It's not always yakking away. I'm sure when I drive to work, there are stretches of wordlessness.

 

[Hank77]

I cannot imagine formulating a thought, or even typing these words, without saying them to myself, in my mind, before or while typing them.

You hear them audibly?
I form words in my mind when I type, read, etc. but I don't hear them audibly. Or like talking to yourself without speaking, that's not audible though.

 

[Kaon]

You hear them audibly?
I form words in my mind when I type, read, etc. but I don't hear them audibly. Or like talking to yourself without speaking, that's not audible though.

Could you read this sentence in your head, and will yourself to hear our own voice?

In other words, can you create the audio in your head? (Try it.)

 

[Kaon]

What would be your guess/opinion as to the reason for this?

My opinion is that those who don't hear voices in their head may be extroverts - all the voices that would be inside the head are outside .

 

[Hank77]

In FACT....sometimes when I write posts.....since im reading aloud in my head....i sometimes read the sentence too fast and I miss typing a word......and then have to add the word after a subsequent reading of the sentence!

I do that, too. I don't think it's that unusual.

 

[Hank77]

Could you read this sentence in your head, and will yourself to hear our own voice?

In other words, can you create the audio in your head? (Try it.)

I can know what a song sounds like in my thoughts, I can sing it in my thoughts, but it's not audible. It's not like hearing it with my ears.

 

[Kaon]

I can know what a song sounds like in my thoughts, I can sing it in my thoughts, but it's not audible. It's not like hearing it with my ears.

Right, I don't think the OP means hearing as if "you" are talking to you at a park, but the perception may be as if "you" are talking to yourself - in a park, in your head. In other words, independent of the sound quality, can you hear your voice with reasonable intensity?

For example, some people literally cannot hear other people in front of their faces because the intensity of "them" is high - loud volume within one's own head. Are you able to project your own voice inside of your head at some non-negligible intensity? (I think you may be in the camp that can).

 

[Tania11]

In my mind I hear it when I'm reading or thinking but not out loud. I guess I don't understand. When is a thought audible? When one speaks, right?

 

[LiquidCat]

A colleague of mine was amazed at something she just found out. I had never heard of it either.
What she read was that some people, when they are thinking, hear their own voice, audibly just like they are actually talking. They can look in the mirror and have an internal conversation with themselves... while hearing their voice.

This colleague, and others so we have found, do just that. They were baffled that myself and others could think and make decisions in the silence of our mind.

So, are you one who can think and have thoughts in silence... Or... do you hear your own voice in a audible dialog?

I can't imagine how people don't have inner voice like what you doing without it ? I barerly speak cuz there is no point usually since you can just talk to yourself in your mind.
People who don't have inner voice must be like NPC with pre-programmed daily routine since they must not think at all , well they think that they think but what they do is pre-programmed response to what occurs if you dont use inner voice.


But lets forget that , how do people even read without the audio inside of your head or inner voice , like even when you type you are reading it as you type and hearing inside of your head the voice text makes when you read it how would you read without it ?

 

[Kaon]

I can't imagine how people don't have inner voice like what you doing without it ? I barerly speak cuz there is no point usually since you can just talk to yourself in your mind.
People who don't have inner voice must be like NPC with pre-programmed daily routine since they must not think at all , well they think that they think but what they do is pre-programmed response to what occurs if you dont use inner voice.


But lets forget that , how do people even read without the audio inside of your head or inner voice , like even when you type you are reading it as you type and hearing inside of your head the voice text makes when you read it how would you read without it ?

I think this is the junction that separates the two camps: the meaning of audible.

I am thinking those that don't hear a voice may believe they don't because it isn't the same sound quality as someone speaking to you in your face - because some people [can actually receive or project such high intensity that it sounds like they can] hear voices as if it is right in front, and outside of them.

 

[JacksBratt]

I can't imagine how people don't have inner voice like what you doing without it ? I barerly speak cuz there is no point usually since you can just talk to yourself in your mind.
People who don't have inner voice must be like NPC with pre-programmed daily routine since they must not think at all , well they think that they think but what they do is pre-programmed response to what occurs if you dont use inner voice.


But lets forget that , how do people even read without the audio inside of your head or inner voice , like even when you type you are reading it as you type and hearing inside of your head the voice text makes when you read it how would you read without it ?

I know it's different for you than others. But.. we do just fine without our audible voice.
It's just different.

 

[JacksBratt]

I think this is the junction that separates the two camps: the meaning of audible.

I am thinking those that don't hear a voice may believe they don't because it isn't the same sound quality as someone speaking to you in your face - because some people [can actually receive or project such high intensity that it sounds like they can] hear voices as if it is right in front, and outside of them.

Nope, no voice. No sound... just thought.