“Toward a Phenomenology of Inner Speaking”, 2013-12-01 (; similar):
Inner speaking is a common but not ubiquitous phenomenon of inner experience.
There are large individual differences in the frequency of inner speaking (from near 0% to near 100%).
There is substantial variability in the phenomenology of naturally occurring moments of inner speaking.
Use of an appropriate method is critical to the study of inner experience.
Descriptive Experience Sampling is designed to apprehend high fidelity descriptions of inner experience.
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.
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