Inner Speech Flashcards
Inner speech
Activity of talking to oneself in silence. Around 1/4 of people’s conscious waking life consists of inner speech.
Private speech
Speech-for-self emitted outloud by children in social
situations; adults too engage in private speech (when
alone).
Self-talk
Talking to oneself either silently or out loud.
Describe the progression of inner speech
Social speech -> private speech -> inner speech; private speech can reemerge in adulthood, but takes place when a person is alone.
Can inner speech develop prior to social speech?
No it can’t.
Can you be conscious without being self-aware?
Yes (eg. babies are conscious but might not necessarily be self aware and know they are hungry).
What inner speech is VS what inner speech is not
Is thinking inner speech?
Thinking is more than just inner speech.
What is the cognitive function of inner speech?
- Verbal self guidance (i.e., self-regulation/control)
- Blocking inner speech produces self-control deficits.
What does verbal self-guidance include?
- Setting/remembering goals
- Planning
- Reasoning
- Problem-solving
- Decision-making
- Self-motivating speech
What are the addiction functions, besides the cognitive functions, of inner speech?
- Mnemonic function
- Language function
- Task-switching performance
- Rehearsing person-to-person communicative encounters
- Emotional expression
- Learning to differentiate one’s own voice from those of others through private speech use.
- Theory-of-Mind
What does dysfunctional self-talk look like?
- May lead to (or maintain) psychological disorders.
- Inner speech use correlates with rumination.
- Asymmetry between positive and negative self-verbalizations.
- Auditory verbal hallucinations experienced by schizophrenic patients - non-monitored inner speech.
- Lack of self-regulatory inner speech in hyperactive children.
What are the self-reflective functions of inner speech?
- Verbal labelling of self-characteristics allows one to become fully aware of them and to gradually incorporate them into self-concept.
- One becomes aware of mental states when one generates higher-order thoughts about them; one becomes self-aware when one engages in self-talk (higher-order thought) about one’s current mental states and personal characteristics.
Does inner speech lead to self-reflection, or vice versa?
Describe how there will be self-awareness deficits following inner speech loss?
- General self-awareness deficit.
- Confused sense of individuality.
- Problems retrieving autobiographical memories.
- Lack of self-conscious emotions.