Short Wave The Mystery Of Inner Monologues
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Nov 19, 2025 Charles Fernyhough, a psychology professor at Durham University, dives deep into the intriguing world of inner monologues. He explores the fascinating differences in inner speech, revealing that not everyone experiences an internal dialogue. Fernyhough explains how children develop inner speech, shares insights on brain regions involved, and describes the phenomenon of voice hearing as misattributed inner speech. The conversation also touches on cognitive diversity, emphasizing the variety in how people think and process internally.
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Two Very Different Inner Heads
- Emily Kwong says she lacks an inner monologue and experiences images and feelings instead of words.
- Rachel Carlson describes a loud, dialogue-like inner voice that feels like a screenplay.
Beepers Revealed Limits Of Self-Report
- Russell Hurlburt pioneered descriptive experience sampling by beeper to capture people's inner experiences.
- Hurlburt found that self-reports were unreliable and that careful iterative interviews improved accuracy.
Inner Speech Grows From Social Talk
- Charles Fernyhough links inner speech to children's private speech which develops from social dialogues.
- He credits Vygotsky's theory: social conversation internalizes into self-directed inner speech.