Psychology professor Russell Hurlburt (left) has been studying what he calls inner experience for more than 40 years. He's written six books on the topic
The 5 main ways of thinking:
Inner speaking/ inner monologue - Ex. talking to yourself, hearing your voice or someone else or audibly recalling a phone number.
Inner seeing/ visual imagery - Thoughts with a visual symbol. Ex. picturing a memory or a place you wish you lived.
Feelings - A conscious experience of emotional process. Ex. feeling sad after the death of a loved one.
Unsymbolized thinking - No word or image associated with thoughts. Ex. pouring your morning coffee without telling yourself to.
Sensory awareness- Paying attention to a sensory aspect of the environment for an unimportant reason. Ex. hearing someone talk but seeing the light reflecting off their glasses.
According to Hulburt, not many people have an inner monologue 100 per cent of the time, but most do sometimes. He estimates that inner monologue is a frequent thing for 30 to 50 per cent of people.
"There are very big individual differences," he said, "Some people have absolutely none and some people have pretty close to 100 per cent."
What it's like living without an inner monologue - A look at the inner experience and the science behind it https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/inner-monologue-experience-science-1.5486969
Psychology professor Russell Hurlburt (left) has been studying what he calls inner experience for more than 40 years. He's written six books on the topic
The 5 main ways of thinking:
Inner speaking/ inner monologue - Ex. talking to yourself, hearing your voice or someone else or audibly recalling a phone number.
Inner seeing/ visual imagery - Thoughts with a visual symbol. Ex. picturing a memory or a place you wish you lived.
Feelings - A conscious experience of emotional process. Ex. feeling sad after the death of a loved one.
Unsymbolized thinking - No word or image associated with thoughts. Ex. pouring your morning coffee without telling yourself to.
Sensory awareness- Paying attention to a sensory aspect of the environment for an unimportant reason. Ex. hearing someone talk but seeing the light reflecting off their glasses.
According to Hulburt, not many people have an inner monologue 100 per cent of the time, but most do sometimes. He estimates that inner monologue is a frequent thing for 30 to 50 per cent of people.
"There are very big individual differences," he said, "Some people have absolutely none and some people have pretty close to 100 per cent."