55 minutes ago, Stocky said:

I must admit I thought everyone experienced books in a similar way.

Out of curiosity I just ask my wife. She doesn't hear a narration, she just understands what's written, but reading something like a novel she does have a visualisation of characters and places.

8 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I enjoy reading. I read all the times novels, news, technical articles and books, etc.

In my experience I don't read significantly slower or faster than others. I tried some time ago to read faster without the hearing. Sometimes it kind of works. But I think this is more like skipping the information and not really reading. If I read a novel I want to "feel" the atmosphere. And if I read i.e. a technical articles I want to make sure I understand the details. So in both cases skipping does not make sense.

 

About the mental multiplication: Yes, they don't need any calculation. We know the result. And that is exactly the point of that experiment. How does the answer appear to us? If someone ask us for the result of 4x4 do you hear a voice which tells you 16? Or do you see a 16 somewhere in your imagination? Somehow the head tells us the result is 16 but the way this appears in different people's heads is different. Some hear it, some see it, and there are more variations.

I saw a 4 wheel drive vehicle before I read to the answer of 16 - 5555

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

I myself am probably somewhat deficient in visualizing since in my pre-GPS driving days I would get lost easily.

An interesting point, before GPS I could, and indeed still can, conjure a mental image much like a GPS screen with me in the centre and a rough map stretching out with my understanding of where I am in relation to various points of reference. I seldom get lost, I always have an approximate idea of where I am, and it doesn't take me long to build a mental map of a city.

 

But it begs a further question, how do you experience thought? Are you, like me, in a continuous mental conversation with yourself?

 

I'm guessing not.

 

.

3 hours ago, Stocky said:

An interesting point, before GPS I could, and indeed still can, conjure a mental image much like a GPS screen with me in the centre and a rough map stretching out with my understanding of where I am in relation to various points of reference. I seldom get lost, I always have an approximate idea of where I am, and it doesn't take me long to build a mental map of a city.

 

But it begs a further question, how do you experience thought? Are you, like me, in a continuous mental conversation with yourself?

 

I'm guessing not.

 

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I take it as a given that everyone has an internal voice going all the time.  I think the point of Buddhist meditation is to learn to focus to the point of stopping the internal monologue.  

 

Turns out someone has studied the question at hand, at least to the point of tallying self-reports.  To wit, 82.5% of people do report an inner reading voice.  10.6% say they do not and the rest aren't clear.  Half of those who report an inner reading voice say it is the same all the time while the other hear different voices.  For some people the inner reading voice is the same as the inner monologue voice, for others it's different.   

 

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/02/22/you-hear-a-voice-in-your-head-when-youre-reading-right/

I hear the words in my mind as if they were spoken... I think it is in the voice of Thomas Jefferson, but can't be sure... Ben Franklin for comedy. 

the ultimate test...

 

try to force yourself to read this in just one-voice! 

 

the book of the script of film of the...

 the filo

 

Either the first or last option. Depends on the content I guess. My tgf has to read out loud (even if she’s just whispering to herself. Drives me mad)

I hear the internal dialogue as do most sentient beings. TVF members excused.

22 hours ago, cmarshall said:

That might be true, but the article cited is unsubstantiated opinion.

As opposed to every other comment on any forum? Or indeed any news journal, newspaper of scientific publication. It is all opinion. 

An old bloke told me many years ago that the only truth in a newspaper is the date and the price. Everything else is opinion. The same holds true today. The truth about black holes or dark energy......an opinion.

But thank you for starting this thread.

Makes a welcome  and refreshing change from TM30/Trump/ Brexit/ strength of baht drivel.

Yes,for me the inner reading and inner monologue voices are exactly the same.

On 12/25/2019 at 3:29 PM, wgdanson said:

What about when you are thinking? Do you think in your native language?

And what have you been smoking?

I don’t always agree with your posts but on this one I certainly am on the same wave length 

“Some people must live boring lives” springs to mind.

There's a British guy in my head that insist on reading things for me

On 12/25/2019 at 3:29 PM, wgdanson said:

What about when you are thinking? Do you think in your native language?

And what have you been smoking?

actually, it's a very interesting question and I believe it is strongly linked to how someone thinks and learns.

I was always "different" in my learning, especially languages. people are always surprised to hear that I don't think in any language, my thoughts come as concepts and sensorial feelings only. For languages, I convert concepts and feelings directly into the current language that I am using at that moment, I never think in one language first and then translate. Only when the word doesn't come to mind, I try to find it in another language. I learn languages very fast when immersed.

I like reading quite a lot. I was reading an autobiography today.

 

I definitely hear the text in my head and adjust voices to what I think is a voice similar to the person, or if I know the author, say an autobiography, or it is somebody famous, such as Morgan Freeman or similar, I hear them speaking in my head.

 

Weird, I actually never thought about it and naturally presumed everybody else did the same!

What a satisfying & thought-provoking question! And a great greeting for the new year, too.

 

In English, my native tongue, I generally hear the voices, regardless of content. I can be a fast reader but I prefer a more moderate pace; if something’s worth reading, it’s usually worth savouring.

 

My area of specialisation is children’s literature. I have re-read a few juveniles for pleasure and occasionally have to remind myself not to add the voices of anthropomorphised animals or characters from films. Remember when a lot of film actors were Shakespearean-trained & spoke in cultivated British accents no matter how thoroughly American they were?

 

I have found it rare to find non-native readers to ‘read’ a book and really absorb its content let alone take pleasure from its reading, no matter how fluent they may be or living in a country where the language is in daily use. Most non-natives find it a real grind to read a foreign book!

 

The diacritically-accented languages, such as French or Thai, make it easier, IMO, to ‘hear’ their voices. The trick is in the intonation, not the tonality.

 

Which brings me to the classical languages. I do a lot of reading in Latin & Greek from the Loeb Classical Library. We have no idea of the voices of 2,000 year old authors or even the way the ancient languages were pronounced in everyday speech. (Or Sanskrit or Pali!) When I read translations of ‘modern’ (1650-present) children’s books in Latin & Greek, I ‘hear’ the characters’ voices as I would when reading them in English.

 

I myself am not a great translator so I deeply admire those who can capture the authors’ voices in use of language, narrative, and style from the original writing. (Think Umberto Eco…) Translation is largely unsung & unrewarded making its satisfaction an added gratitude to the rest of us illiterati!

 

My purpose as a writer is to foster imagination in my readers. We are so overwhelmed by ‘content’, a lot of those brain areas responsible for such visualisation must certainly have atrophied! (It’s why I disabled my ’smart’phone!)

 

For extra credit, readers may be interested in considering this: https://www.quora.com/Does-OM-belong-to-Tamil-or-Sanskrit. An OP asked if we have a “continuous mental conversation” with ourselves. I do, absolutely! And, yes, meditation is about stopping that internal monolugue & dialogue. I may be too self-important to ever get to be truly successful at this practice!

 

I read aloud to all three of my children decades ago but, these days, I confine myself to passages or segments rather than entire books. What’s fun is to sight-translate (however imperfectly) those passages aloud.

 

What a wonderful question, and some great answers, too. You’ve exercised a lot of brains here at TV where opinions are more commonly taken to task. Thank you!

On 12/25/2019 at 3:53 PM, 4MyEgo said:

I hear voices all time, but not when reading, usually when walking down the street, they are pretty similar, "hello hanhom man, where you go", I know they are just voices, because I never see anyone when I look up ????

 

And we are back to the ubiquitous sexpat experience. 

I read factual, detailed reports at work, and I hear my own voice in my head.  But I'm surprised when I hear myself in a recording, as I don't sound like me. ????

 

When reading news reports it's a BBC reporter voice, and when reading fiction the voice in my head matches the character.

How can anyone hear anything when there is mo listening involved?