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When is it better to think without words?

(www.henrikkarlsson.xyz)
203 points Curiositry | 2 comments | 23 Oct 25 21:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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stavros ◴[23 Oct 25 23:32 UTC] No.45688827[source]▶
But we all know thoughts aren't words, the words come after the thought. The proof is that you can stop your inner words mid-sentence and you still know what you were going to think, because the thought itself takes a few milliseconds, and happens before the words start.
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shakna ◴[23 Oct 25 23:56 UTC] No.45689059[source]▶
I think a better way to show this, would be that anendophasia [0] is a thing.

Some people have no inner voice, but aren't thoughtless automatons. They can still task-switch the same as everyone else.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38728320/

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1. daxfohl ◴[24 Oct 25 00:03 UTC] No.45689107[source]▶
Or by watching rats solve mazes
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2. shakna ◴[24 Oct 25 04:18 UTC] No.45690719[source]▶
I don't think we've attempted to study if rats have internal monolgues all that much, yet. It wouldn't surprise me if they did, or did not. I wouldn't say it is safe to assume they don't.

About the only real animal model has shown that some species of monkey probably do. [0]

[0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01664...