What do you think?
Not even all humans have that little voice.
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.
You didn’t! I was just clarifying, no worries.
In a way that scares me, but it would explain how we have so many different ways of looking at life.
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…”…
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.
People with neurodivergences ranging from mild autism to major life-ruining conditions have been hearing “I don’t believe you, you’re just doing it for attention” forever, and that’s a crappy and potentially very harmful position for someone outside the situation to take.
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.
Thoughts, yes. Please keep in mind that thoughts are not necessarily in the form of a voice, even in humans.
My cat has thoughts. They’re usually “today I feel like biting my owner because it’s a load of fun”
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.
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…
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.
No, but that is because they don’t have language.
That said, plenty of humans do not have a voiced internal experience. The lack of language does not imply a lack of cognition. I would expect that the brain of a closely related organism, say a chimp, would have many similar experiences generated by the same stimuli. Would they experience green like I experience green? I can’t even say that about a person sitting next to me, but they probably have an equivalent experience.
That said, if we had a way of communicating could we reach agreed terms? I can do that with my cat, so I would think he has an understanding of me and my behaviours along with what tends to happen when I do certain things like clap then shake my hands at the end of a treat session. He knows there are no more treats, he associates that with my hands clapping and shaking, so we communicate. Does he have a voice in his head describing it? Probably not. Does he have Meows? Again, probably not, but he would have a sense and memories of previous times.
Does he have Meows?
That’s such a cute and funny thing to imagine lol. An inner meowologue
they don’t have language
Have you never seen a dog wag their tail or play bow?
Have you never seen a squirrel twitching their tail at another squirrel who’s encroached on their territory?
Have you never encountered any media about whale songs?
All kinds of animals have all kinds of language.
I meant to say language in the linguistics sense, a series of abstract items which can be arranged to convey arbitrary meaning. For example, a dog barking can be a threat display, a warning, playful, sad, afraid, and so on. But can you use barking to create grammar? With grammar you could have labels for items in the world and use various barks to refer to them, make requests, ask questions, and so on. Some types of animals have warning calls that are specific to types of predators, for example an eagle call or a leopard call. Leopards require different responses than eagles so the distinction is very useful and helps others to respond. This is not quite language but is definitely a step in the right direction.
So yes, you are correct, lots of animals can communicate things to each other, but it is not the same as language like what humans have. Could we find an animal that does have language? Or something very close? Sure, but we haven’t shown that yet. Maybe we should focus on giving other animals a chance to develop before we wipe them all out.
but it is not the same as language like what humans have
And it doesn’t have to be. In fact this sort of thinking can limit how we learn about other animals.
Dogs don’t pass the mirror test for self awareness like some corvids and a few other animals do. But dogs don’t experience each other primarily through vision, scent is much more their main sense. So is that even a valid test for canid self awareness?
Dogs dream, and dreams are just thoughts.
Not sure about thoughts, but cats are interesting in their level of committment to their intent when they “decide” they want to do something. They are laser-focused and its hard to actually meaningfully distract them from the execution once the order’s been placed haha.
Watch them sometime. Cat.exe are very deiberate little critters. It reminds me of when you hit the share sheet on iOS but you change your mind and try desperately to navigate away from it popping up or hoping you can cancel out the instruction but nope. Its coming
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.
Humans are animals.
True though that may be, there’s no benefit to mentioning that in this situation.
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?
Wait, you have a little voice in your head??
Yeah you know like the devil and the angel of the cartoons…
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?
deleted by creator
My dog’s would often woof and move their paws on their dreams.
I think that it’s on a sliding scale. Some animals clearly have some kind of inner thought process, and clearly have their own personalities. Others not as much. I know that with cats, for instance, there are tools you can use that allow cats to communicate certain concepts to people, stings of buttons that are each linked to a discrete word. Cats can learn to string button presses together to ‘say’ things to their keepers. (Apparently the most common thing they ask for is clean water, so clean your cat’s water daily.) That may not be evidence of “thought” in the way that you’re thinking about it, but there’s clearly some form of cognition going on there.
clean water
I used to have a cat who did this. He would lead me to the bathroom, jump into the tub, and then wait patiently until I turned on the bath faucet – just a trickle!
No, they operate on instinct. Our thoughts are in our own language, their only language is instinct and body language (barks included).
