Summary: Recent research introduces ‘anendophasia’ as a term for the absence of inner speech, revealing that not everyone experiences inte

Inside the Quiet Mind: The Absence of Inner Speech

submited by

Style Pass

2024-05-12 22:00:04

Summary: Recent research introduces ‘anendophasia’ as a term for the absence of inner speech, revealing that not everyone experiences internal dialogue. The study compared adults with low and high levels of inner speech, finding significant differences in their cognitive abilities.

Those with minimal inner speech struggled more with verbal working memory and rhyme judgments, although their task-switching abilities were unaffected. This study highlights the significant role inner speech plays in certain cognitive functions.

Inner speech, or the internal monologue that narrates, debates, and processes information in language form, is often assumed to be a constant companion in our minds.

However, new research challenges this notion, introducing the term “anendophasia” to describe individuals who rarely, if ever, experience inner speech.

The participants were divided into two groups based on their self-reported levels of inner speech. Those in the low inner speech group (N = 46) demonstrated notably poorer performance in verbal working memory tasks compared to their counterparts in the high inner speech group (N = 47).