Why Inner Speech? Michael Johnson VAP Lingnan University
(HK)
Slide 2
Outline 1.What Is Inner Speech? 2.Why Inner Speech? 3.Inner
Speech and Attention 4.Conclusion
Slide 3
1. WHAT IS INNER SPEECH?
Slide 4
Inner Speech As Ill use the term, inner speech is a label for
the phenomenon we naturally describe as thinking in English/
Cantonese/ Catalan/ Kalaallisut/ etc. But what is the nature of
this phenomenon and how is it related to thought and outer
speech?
Slide 5
Arguments that LOT English Extensional inequivalence:
Pre-linguistic infants think (else they cant learn languages). Deaf
adult humans who dont know sign- language (or a spoken language)
think. Non-human animals think.
Slide 6
Arguments that LOT English Greater indeterminacy of English
compared with LOT: Lexical ambiguity: Fred went to the bank.
Structural ambiguity: Flying planes can be dangerous. Scopal
ambiguity: Every boy loves some girl.
Slide 7
Processes Implicated in Speech Lexical selection: selecting
lexical items Syntactic encoding: arranging the lexemes according
to the syntactic rules Phonological code retrieval [encoding]:
retrieving [producing] phonological information Phonetic encoding:
Putting the information into an articulatory code Articulation
Slide 8
Lexical Selection: Left Middle Temporal Gyrus, Mid Section
Slide 9
Syntactic Encoding: Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus/ Brocas
Area
Slide 10
Syntactic Encoding: Middle Frontal Gyri
Slide 11
Syntactic Encoding: Superior Parietal Lobule
Slide 12
Phonological Code Retrieval: Right Supplementary Motor
Area
Slide 13
Phonological Code Retrieval: Left Anterior Insula
Slide 14
Phonological Code Retrieval: Wernickes Area
Slide 15
Phonological Encoding: Brocas Area
Slide 16
Phonological Encoding: Left Mid- Superior Temporal Gyrus
Slide 17
The Brain and Inner Speech Importantly, in both inner speech
and auditory visual imagery (imagining someone else saying
something), all these brain areas are active. Many researchers
(e.g. Bookheimer 2002) think the brain activity in inner speech is
the same as in overt speech just a little less strong, and minus
phonetic encoding and articulation.
Slide 18
Brocas Area Finally, patients with damage to Brocas area can
suffer expressive aphasia an inability to speak or write words.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation of Brocas area has been shown to
inhibit inner speech (Aziz-Zadeh, Cattaneo, Rochat &
Rizzolatti, 2005)
Slide 19
The Phenomenal Character of IS Inner speech is an auditory
phenomenon. The phrase hear myself think gets 1.4m google hits
compared with 640,000 for feel myself think. Interestingly, BA
41/42 (the auditory cortex) is not (to my knowledge) activated in
inner speech. The auditory cortex contains the neural correlates of
auditory consciousness.
Slide 20
Summary Inner speech is distinct from thought. Inner speech
involves all of the brain areas used in encoding thought into
language except the areas involved in phonetic encoding and
articulation. Inner speech is an auditory phenomenon(?)
Slide 21
General Model Thought Linguistic encoding (LE) of thought LE
sent to speech production apparatus = outer speech
Slide 22
General Model Thought Linguistic encoding (LE) of thought LE
sent to auditory mechanism = inner speech
Slide 23
Slide 24
2. WHY INNER SPEECH?
Slide 25
What good could talking to yourself do, if you already knew
what you intended to say? Dennett (1991 p. 301)
Slide 26
The Basic Puzzle Suppose I have a thought. If I dont plan on
communicating it to anyone in the foreseeable future, why would I:
Find the words that express the components of the thought; Arrange
them according to the rules of grammar; Figure out how they would
sound; And then listen to them?
Slide 27
Some Solutions I Dont Like Theres no reason why we engage in
inner speech. Only a befuddled hyper-adaptationist would think
there had to be a reason. The reason has nothing to do with inner
speech: inner speech is a side-effect. Inner speech is conscious
whereas our unspoken thoughts arent: inner speech allows us to
globally broadcast information.
Slide 28
No Function? The burden of proof is always on the side that
wants to claim that a cognitive feature is adaptive and does have a
function. That being said, theres plenty of evidence that deficits
in inner speech (either temporary or permanent) result in severe
cognitive impairment.
Slide 29
Benefits of Inner Speech Here are just some of the areas
impaired by a deficit in inner speech: self-awareness intelligence
mathematical ability memory
Slide 30
Side-Effect Story For fully verbalized outer speech, it is
necessary to encode our thoughts in language, and to do so very
rapidly. Ideally, we would perform this encoding only when
necessary, but nature is rarely ideal. Instead we perform the
encoding even in those large number of instances where we have no
plans to engage in verbal behavior.
Slide 31
Problems for Side-Effect Story 1.The story doesnt explain how
inner speech conveys the benefits to intelligence, memory, etc.
2.Theres an extra step in inner speech thats not needed in outer
speech: routing the phonological representations to the auditory
cortex.
Slide 32
Global Broadcast Story Carruthers suggests that inner speech
exists as a medium for the different modules to talk to one
another. This seems implausible. How could something linguistically
encoded in principle be globally accessible? Just how many mental
faculties can process language?
Slide 33
Heres the Story I Like A salient difference between thought and
audition is that the former is essentially non- perceptual and the
latter is essentially perceptual. As well see, that makes quite a
difference.
Slide 34
3. INNER SPEECH AND ATTENTION
Slide 35
In the rest of the talk, I want to try to outline how it is
that inner speech is involved in what research says its involved
in: Memory Mathematical Ability Self-Awareness Intelligence
Slide 36
Attention Attention involves selecting an aspect of our
perceptions (or our sensations) and allocating additional cognitive
resources to that aspect. Attention can thus only be provided to
and withheld from perceptions and sensations.
Slide 37
Short-Term Memory Knudsen (2007) sees attention as the means by
which information enters short-term memory. Thus for information to
enter short-term memory, it must come to us through sensation or
perception.
Slide 38
Inner Speech and Memory Inner speech, as Ive argued, is an
auditory phenomenon. Thus it, unlike ordinary thought*, is
precisely the sort of thing we can attend to. Unsurprisingly,
research has shown that inner speech aids in memory (Baddely
1986).
Memory and Mathematics Performing all but the simplest
arithmetical calculations requires storing the values of
intermediate calculations in short term memory. If attention is
essentially perceptual, and is also the gateway to short-term
memory, then a perceptual presentation of arithmetical problems is
necessary for solving them.
Slide 41
Inner Speech and Arithmetic This presentation can be visual (on
a chalkboard, for example), but it can also be auditory. Research
reveals that private speech increases arithmetical ability in
children (Ostad & Sorensen 2007) and that one of the cognitive
deficits that faces deaf individuals who have learned no language
is poor arithmetical ability.
Self-Awareness Self-awareness is the capacity to become the
object of ones own attention (Duval and Wicklund, 1972), where the
individual actively identifies, processes, and stores information
about the self Self-awareness involves attention paid to ones own
mental states (such as perceptions, sensations, attitudes,
intentions, emotions, etc.) and public self-characteristics. [Morin
2005, emphasis mine]
Slide 44
Self-Awareness and Inner Speech [T]hrough a process of
labeling, categorizing, and engaging in language-based modes of
representation, a person not only represents internal states and
experiences (sentience) but acquires the capacity to reflect on
them. [Burns & Engdahl 1998: 179] Without language [internal
monitoring remains] relatively primitive, vague, unelaborated.
[171]
Slide 45
Self-Awareness and Inner Speech Heres the basic picture:
Awareness of our own thoughts is difficult to come by. The best way
to get it is to translate the thought into language, then speak it
to ourselves. This allows us to attend to the thought and discover
what we are thinking.
Why We Are So Clever [A] creature that knows what would make
its thoughts true and what would cause it to have them, would be in
a highly advantageous epistemic position:
Slide 48
Why We Are So Clever It would be able, with premeditation, to
cause itself to have true thoughts. In particular, to construct,
with malice aforethought, situations in which it will be caused to
have the thought that P if and only if the thought that P is
true.
Slide 49
Why We Are So Clever I think it's likely that we are the only
creatures that can think about the contents of our thoughts.
Summary of the Talk Part 1: Inner speech is speech that is not
articulated. It is not thought itself, but thought encoded
linguistically. Part 2: A puzzle arises as to how encoding our
thoughts in a linguistic medium conveys any benefit to us.
Slide 53
Summary of the Talk Part 3: The puzzle is resolved when we
notice that attention is fundamentally sensory/ perceptual. We can
attend to LEs in a way that we cant attend to thoughts. This allows
us to store intermediate calculations so encoded in short term
memory, and also allows us to become self-aware of our thoughts.
This self-awareness is the fountainhead of human intelligence.
![[Validated Audit Process (VAP)] EICC Manual Pengendalian VAP](https://img.pdfslide.net/doc/110x75/587748571a28ab514f8b5fa7/validated-audit-process-vap-eicc-manual-pengendalian-vap.jpg)
