ArticlePDF Available

Inner reading voices: An overlooked form of inner speech

Authors:
Ruvanee Vilhauer at New York University
Ruvanee Vilhauer
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract

Inner speech is theorized to be the basis for auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), but few empirical studies have examined the phenomenology of inner speech, particularly while reading. One hundred and sixty posts from a popular question and answer community website were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach, to examine the phenomenology of inner reading voices (IRVs). Results indicated that many individuals report routinely experiencing IRVs, which often have the auditory qualities of overt speech, such as recognizable identity, gender, pitch, loudness and emotional tone. IRVs were sometimes identified as the readers’ own voices, and sometimes as the voices of other people. Some individuals reported that IRVs were continuous with audible thoughts. Both controllable and uncontrollable IRVs were reported. IRVs may provide evidence for individual variation in imagery vividness and support for inner speech accounts of AVHs. IRVs may be a useful model for studying AVHs in the non-clinical population and need further investigation.
Content uploaded by Ruvanee Vilhauer
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Ruvanee Vilhauer on May 12, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
Free access to the full text of this article is at:
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/fIYsPV9k8CCKaqnA6P8b/full
Inner reading voices: An overlooked form of inner speech
Ruvanee P. Vilhauer
Abstract:
Inner speech is theorized to be the basis for auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs), but few
empirical studies have examined the phenomenology of inner speech, particularly while reading.
One hundred and sixty posts from a popular question and answer community website were
analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach, to examine the phenomenology of inner
reading voices (IRVs). Results indicated that many individuals report routinely experiencing
IRVs, which often have the auditory qualities of overt speech, such as recognizable identity,
gender, pitch, loudness and emotional tone. IRVs were sometimes identified as the readers’ own
voices, and sometimes as the voices of other people. Some individuals reported that IRVs were
continuous with audible thoughts. Both controllable and uncontrollable IRVs were reported.
IRVs may provide evidence for individual variation in imagery vividness and support for inner
speech accounts of AVHs. IRVs may be a useful model for studying AVHs in the non-clinical
population and need further investigation.
Publication Date: Apr 29, 2015
Publication Name: Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches
To cite this article: R. P. Vilhauer (2015): Inner reading voices: An overlooked
form of inner speech, Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches, DOI:
10.1080/17522439.2015.1028972

Supplementary resource (1)

Vilhauer InnerReadingVoice AcceptedMS for posting2
Data
February 2016
Ruvanee Vilhauer
... 1 Also, based upon 1 Of course, there are qualifications. Normal individuals can experience their inner voice as an imitation of others, for example, when rehearsing a character for a play, or silently reading a character in a story (see Vilhauer, 2016). ...
Inner speech and the body error theory
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2024
Inner speech is commonly understood as the conscious experience of a voice within the mind. One recurrent theme in the scientific literature is that the phenomenon involves a representation of overt speech, for example, a representation of phonetic properties that result from a copy of speech instructions that were ultimately suppressed. I propose a larger picture that involves some embodied objects and their misperception. I call it “the Body Error Theory,” or BET for short. BET is a form of illusionism, but the particular version I favor is a cross-modal illusion. Newly described here, my hypothesis is that the experience of inner speech arises from a mix of interoception and audition. Specifically, there is the detection of slight but well-confirmed activities in the speech musculature that occur during inner speech, which helps to transform representations of normal but quiet nonverbal sounds that inevitably occur during inner speech, from breathing to background noise, into a mistaken perception of inner speech. Simply put, activities in the speech musculature mix with sounds to create the appearance of speech sounds, which thus explains the “voice within the mind.” I also show how BET’s cross-modal system fits with standard information processing accounts for speech monitoring and how it accommodates the central insights of leading theories of inner speech. In addition, I show how BET is supported by data from experience-sampling surveys and how it can be empirically tested against its rivals.
View
... See also Musselman (2000). 5 For further discussion on the presence and absence of an inner voice in reading see among others: Vilhauer (2016Vilhauer ( , 2017. 6 For some, this may recall Genette's oft-cited axiom: ". . ...
Shifting Gears or Splitting Hairs? Performance Criticism’s Object of Study
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2023
In keeping with the call of this Special Issue, this article is but one voice in the midst of a much broader conversation, attending to whether the differences between narrative and performance criticism are a matter of degree or kind. Narrative and biblical performance criticisms are natural bedfellows. The two appear genealogically related as they share similar founders, attend to similar features, and to a degree share similar interests with regard to interpretation. In fact, their interests appear to be so closely aligned at several points that attempts to distinguish between these two approaches run the risk of simply “splitting hairs”. Yet, our recognition of these distinctions is essential for highlighting the unique contribution of each approach. In what follows, I suggest that the differences between performance and narrative criticisms are rather (at least theoretically) a “shifting of gears”, a progression toward a more complex understanding of how biblical texts work in various contexts and how we as scholars may approach them as objects of study. While the object of study in narrative criticism is relatively well established (again, at least theoretically), this is not necessarily the case for performance criticism. In short, by way of contrast, I will suggest that for performance criticism, its object is similar to yet distinct from the object of study of narrative criticism. Such a claim is by no means groundbreaking, especially among the performance critics, nor should it necessarily be viewed as controversial. Rather, in exploring the contours of each approach, this contribution aims to provide additional theoretical credence to certain areas within this conversation. In doing so, this inadvertently has implications not only for our thinking in this particular volume, but also perhaps more broadly for biblical studies.
View
... This was a natural question for him to ask, given that historical accounts tell us that silent reading was rare before the late 19th century and, instead, people tended to read aloud or to mumble when they wanted to spare their neighbours (Manguel, 1996;Pearson & Goodin, 2010). Even nowadays, young children require months of practice before they can read silently (Wright et al., 2004) and most people report experiencing some kind of inner speech as they read (Alderson-Day, & Fernyhough, 2015;Perrone-Bertolotti et al., 2014;Vilhauer, 2016). Bakhtin (1981) argued that the inner voice need not be our own voice. ...
Word Recognition II: Phonological Coding in Reading
Chapter
Full-text available
  • May 2022
This chapter considers key questions and issues concerning the role of phonology in silent reading. It reviews classic findings that point to phonological effects in reading. Stronger evidence for the involvement of assembled phonology in visual word recognition in English comes from experiments using masked priming. There are two ways in which written words can activate phonology. First, a word in its entirety can be recognized as a familiar visual stimulus associated with a particular pronunciation. The second way is to translate parts of words into sounds. A neuroscientific finding is that the reading system is lateralized to hemisphere controlling speech production. It is accepted that orthographic and phonological information jointly contribute to visual word recognition and that this is achieved through rapid interactions between different forms of coding information in the brain. The chapter discusses three computational models: the Dual Route Cascaded model, the Connectionist Dual Process+ model, and the Triangle model.
View
... This was a natural question for him to ask, given that historical accounts tell us that silent reading was rare before the late 19th century and, instead, people tended to read aloud or to mumble when they wanted to spare their neighbours (Manguel, 1996;Pearson & Goodin, 2010). Even nowadays, young children require months of practice before they can read silently (Wright et al., 2004) and most people report experiencing some kind of inner speech as they read (Alderson-Day, & Fernyhough, 2015;Perrone-Bertolotti et al., 2014;Vilhauer, 2016). Bakhtin (1981) argued that the inner voice need not be our own voice. ...
Chapter Brysbaert in Snowling et al (2022)
Preprint
Full-text available
  • Oct 2021
In this chapter I summarize the evidence that phonology is involved in visual word recognition and text reading. This is even the case in groups with suboptimal access to spoken language (such as people born deaf and students learning a second language in school). The phonological code helps to make reading fluent, as suggested by the finding that reading problems (dyslexia) are often associated with deficits in phonology. This should come as no surprise, given that silent reading is a recent skill, which mankind added to its spoken communication developed over 2 million years.
View
... This was a natural question for him to ask, given that historical accounts tell us that silent reading was rare before the late 19th century and, instead, people tended to read aloud or to mumble when they wanted to spare their neighbours (Manguel, 1996;Pearson & Goodin, 2010). Even nowadays, young children require months of practice before they can read silently (Wright et al., 2004) and most people report experiencing some kind of inner speech as they read (Alderson-Day, & Fernyhough, 2015;Perrone-Bertolotti et al., 2014;Vilhauer, 2016). Bakhtin (1981) argued that the inner voice need not be our own voice. ...
Phonological coding in visual language processing
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Oct 2021
In this chapter I summarize the evidence that phonology is involved in visual word recognition and text reading. This is even the case in groups with suboptimal access to spoken language (such as people born deaf and students learning a second language in school). The phonological code helps to make reading fluent, as suggested by the finding that reading problems (dyslexia) are often associated with deficits in phonology. This should come as no surprise, given that silent reading is a recent skill, which mankind added to its spoken communication developed over 2 million years.
View
... One such experience is fictional characters' voices which can be so realistic and engaging that they bring the story to life (Alderson-Day, Bernini, & Fernyhough, 2017). Although many of us do share the intuition of hearing an "inner voice" or inner speech during silent reading, this mental phenomenon remains underspecified (Vilhauer, 2016). ...
Mental Simulations of Phonological Representations Are Causally Linked to Silent Reading of Direct Versus Indirect Speech
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2021
Embodied theories propose that language is understood via mental simulations of sensory states related to perception and action. Given that direct speech (e.g., She says, "It's a lovely day!") is perceived to be more vivid than indirect speech (e.g., She says (that) it's a lovely day) in perception, recent research shows in silent reading that more vivid speech representations are mentally simulated for direct speech than for indirect speech. This 'simulated' speech is found to contain suprasegmental prosodic representations (e.g., speech prosody) but its phonological detail and its causal role in silent reading of direct speech remain unclear. Here in three experiments, I explored the phonological aspect and the causal role of speech simulations in silent reading of tongue twisters in direct speech, indirect speech and non-speech sentences. The results demonstrated greater visual tongue-twister effects (phonemic interference) during silent reading (Experiment 1) but not oral reading (Experiment 2) of direct speech as compared to indirect speech and non-speech. The tongue-twister effects in silent reading of direct speech were selectively disrupted by phonological interference (concurrent articulation) as compared to manual interference (finger tapping) (Experiment 3). The results replicated more vivid speech simulations in silent reading of direct speech, and additionally extended them to the phonological dimension. Crucially, they demonstrated a causal role of phonological simulations in silent reading of direct speech, at least in tongue-twister reading. The findings are discussed in relation to multidimensionality and task dependence of mental simulation and its mechanisms.
View
View
View
Literary dynamics in The.PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Article
  • Dec 2021
Interaction between text and reader is a prominent concern in stylistics. This paper focusses on interactions among stylistic processes and subconscious microcognitive processes that generate changes to narrative and interpretation during reading. Drawing on process philosophy and recent neuroscientific research, I articulate this dynamism through analysis of a brief narrative moment from each of The.PowerBook by Jeanette Winterson and Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I argue that high densities of stylistic and microcognitive perturbations lead to frequent narrative and interpretive changes in the two moments. The analyses reinforce portrayals of reading as intensely complex, dynamic and changeable. Complexity, dynamism and mutability also characterise the stylistic changes in the two narrative moments. This paper advocates greater attention to the role of volatile stylistic and cognitive microdynamics in shaping the reading of prose fiction.
View
Simulation of Pseudo Inner Reading Voices and Evaluation of Effect on Human Processing
Chapter
  • Jul 2020
We propose a pseudo inner reading voices (IRVs) interface to perform decision making from an external perspective, thereby creating an illusion that information is being processed by oneself. This does not imply that decisions are made according to someone else’s instructions; rather, this creates an illusion that the decision was willfully made by one’s own self. The belief that a person made his/her own decision can help reduce the mental workload. Although unfamiliarity with recorded voices has often been studied in perceptual research, there exists no filter that can convert recorded voices into familiar voices. Therefore, we reconstructed bone and air conduction models, measured the bone- and air-conducted sounds separately, weighted the ratio of both sounds, and superimposed them to reproduce a subject’s own voice. Next, in the counting experiment, it was confirmed that the pseudo IRVs can bias the information processing of human beings without increasing the mental workload.
View
Better Than Mermaids and Stray Dogs? Subtyping Auditory Verbal Hallucinations and Its Implications for Research and Practice
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2014
  • SCHIZOPHRENIA BULL
The phenomenological diversity of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) is not currently accounted for by any model based around a single mechanism. This has led to the proposal that there may be distinct AVH subtypes, which each possess unique (as well as shared) underpinning mechanisms. This could have important implications both for research design and clinical interventions because different subtypes may be responsive to different types of treatment. This article explores how AVH subtypes may be identified at the levels of phenomenology, cognition, neurology, etiology, treatment response, diagnosis, and voice hearer's own interpretations. Five subtypes are proposed; hypervigilance, autobiographical memory (subdivided into dissociative and nondissociative), inner speech (subdivided into obsessional, own thought, and novel), epileptic and deafferentation. We suggest other facets of AVH, including negative content and form (eg, commands), may be best treated as dimensional constructs that vary across subtypes. After considering the limitations and challenges of AVH subtyping, we highlight future research directions, including the need for a subtype assessment tool.
View
View
View
Auditory Aspects of Auditory Imagery
Chapter
Full-text available
  • Dec 2013
Empirical findings from studies on imagery of auditory features (pitch, timbre, loudness, duration, tempo, rhythm) and imagery of auditory objects (musical contour and melody, musical key and harmony, notational audiation, speech and text, environmental stimuli) are reviewed. Potential individual differences in auditory imagery (involving vividness, auditory hallucination, development, musical ability, training) are considered. It is concluded that auditory imagery (a) preserves many of the structural and temporal properties of auditory information present in auditory (or multisensory or crossmodal) stimuli, (b) can impact subsequent responding by influencing perception or by influencing expectancies regarding subsequent stimuli, (c) involves mechanisms similar to many of those used in auditory perception, and (d) is subserved by many of the same cortical structures as is auditory perception.
View
Moors, R., & Webber, R. (2012). The Dance of Disclosure: online self-disclosure of sexual assault. Qualitative Social Work Journal DOI: 10.1177/1473325012464383, 1-18.
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2012
The painful route that many survivors take to disclosing sexual assault is well documented, as is the low rate of formal reporting of such incidents. Previous research has examined self-disclosure in traditional settings but not online, where this research found a small but significant amount of help-seeking behaviour occurring. An in-depth analysis of 31 questions and answers on Yahoo! Answers in Australia containing disclosures of sexual assault was conducted. Drawing on interpretive descriptive methodology, clear patterns of help-seeking behaviours and responses were identified and categorized. These patterns constitute what we termed the ‘dance of disclosure’, a theme that could form the basis for further research in this area. Survivors disclosing on this site frequently expressed feeling ‘nowhere else to turn’. In particular a highly vulnerable group was identified as utilizing this medium – survivors who had been abused by people close to them in the past when they were under the age of puberty. Although most responses were supportive, a small number of negative comments were of concern, given survivors’ particular sensitivity to feedback and the influence initial responses have on their inclination to disclose further. As these sites attract survivors reluctant to make contact with social workers and online disclosure can leave victims open to internet predators, we encourage sexual assault counselling centres to consider new outreach methods such as informal monitoring of these sites to offer support and notify survivors of available professional services. It concludes by mentioning some innovative online outreach methods currently being practiced.
View
How Silent Is Silent Reading? Intracerebral Evidence for Top-Down Activation of Temporal Voice Areas during Reading
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2012
  • J NEUROSCI
As you might experience it while reading this sentence, silent reading often involves an imagery speech component: we can hear our own "inner voice" pronouncing words mentally. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have associated that component with increased metabolic activity in the auditory cortex, including voice-selective areas. It remains to be determined, however, whether this activation arises automatically from early bottom-up visual inputs or whether it depends on late top-down control processes modulated by task demands. To answer this question, we collaborated with four epileptic human patients recorded with intracranial electrodes in the auditory cortex for therapeutic purposes, and measured high-frequency (50-150 Hz) "gamma" activity as a proxy of population level spiking activity. Temporal voice-selective areas (TVAs) were identified with an auditory localizer task and monitored as participants viewed words flashed on screen. We compared neural responses depending on whether words were attended or ignored and found a significant increase of neural activity in response to words, strongly enhanced by attention. In one of the patients, we could record that response at 800 ms in TVAs, but also at 700 ms in the primary auditory cortex and at 300 ms in the ventral occipital temporal cortex. Furthermore, single-trial analysis revealed a considerable jitter between activation peaks in visual and auditory cortices. Altogether, our results demonstrate that the multimodal mental experience of reading is in fact a heterogeneous complex of asynchronous neural responses, and that auditory and visual modalities often process distinct temporal frames of our environment at the same time.
View
View
Hearing Voices: The Histories, Causes and Meanings of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations
Article
  • May 2012
The meanings and causes of hearing voices that others cannot hear (auditory verbal hallucinations, in psychiatric parlance) have been debated for thousands of years. Voice-hearing has been both revered and condemned, understood as a symptom of disease as well as a source of otherworldly communication. Those hearing voices have been viewed as mystics, potential psychiatric patients or simply just people with unusual experiences, and have been beatified, esteemed or accepted, as well as drugged, burnt or gassed. This book travels from voice-hearing in the ancient world through to contemporary experience, examining how power, politics, gender, medicine and religion have shaped the meaning of hearing voices. Who hears voices today, what these voices are like and their potential impact are comprehensively examined. Cutting edge neuroscience is integrated with current psychological theories to consider what may cause voices and the future of research in voice-hearing is explored.
View
View
Toward a phenomenology of inner speaking
Article
  • Oct 2013
  • CONSCIOUS COGN
Inner speaking is a common and widely discussed phenomenon of inner experience. Based on our studies of inner experience using Descriptive Experience Sampling (a qualitative method designed to produce high fidelity descriptions of randomly selected pristine inner experience), we advance an initial phenomenology of inner speaking. Inner speaking does occur in many, though certainly not all, moments of pristine inner experience. Most commonly it is experienced by the person as speaking in his or her own naturally inflected voice but with no sound being produced. In addition to prototypical instances of inner speaking, there are wide-ranging variations that fit the broad category of inner speaking and large individual differences in the frequency with which individuals experience inner speaking. Our observations are discrepant from what many have said about inner speaking, which we attribute to the characteristics of the methods different researchers have used to examine inner speaking.
View