Who do you hear when you read?

[another1]

Selflessly I did the research for you and discovered that 80% of us hear "the voice". If not, we may be dyslexic or insane (according to scientific studies).

Let me know what you hear when you think, pray, write or read. I'm interested in the reading part right now, but please share anything relative. Your opinions are important and you matter. Don't sell yourself short and miss out.

To give you examples I'll share my favorite internal monologue voices. Most of them are famous. Some are singers from songs I'd recently heard. Some are family members or past and present lovers. I'll only provide examples you're likely to know of, but you're welcome to include uncle Clyde or anyone else in your responses.

1. When something is poetic I tend to hear a kind, female voice. Sometimes with an echo, and cockney as hell. Like a pauper describing the shiny coin a nice man gave her. Poetry is a hard one to describe. Sometimes I just hear my own voice. What about you?

2. Remember Windows XP narrator? Imagine that.. sped up 3/4... with the pitch all the way down. That is my fast reading voice. From what I've read of people on Yahoo and Reddit, that is pretty common. A male, monotone voice. It always has a very thick echo for me. Maybe even reverb, which is a whole other realm of awesomeness. Reading fast makes you forget the voice, so in most fast reading cases you could say the voice isn't there at all. Agree? No?

3. When reading fantasy I sometimes hear a little British girl. Kinda like the holographic girl in that one movie - Resident evil. Some portions of a story shift from stiff British to other accents. I guess it depends on the characters and situations. What about your fantasy voice?

4. When I read something that disgusts me I usually hear Samuel L. Jackson. Tarantino's tasty hamburger scene. Kind of an accusing, pissed off tone. He is my rage reading voice, too. Just listen to him yell "God damn" in his special way and you'll get he idea. Can you hear him?

5. Ted Levine narrates all things creepy. Even thoughts about people who creep me out sound like Ted. His voice is a major player. I've asked a few people and they laughed but didn't understand. Not actually trying to be funny. This interests me because it is real. Does this interest you?

Thanks!

 

[bilby]

I don't hear a voice while reading, and I'm not dyslexic.

Conclude from this what you will.

 

[untermensche]

If I know the voice of the author I sometimes hear their voice.

But I always hear a voice as I read.

The sight of the words triggers a sound. No "will" involved.

And people who say they don't hear a voice perhaps are not lying.

But they are using less of their brain and are therefore more likely to forget.

 

[another1]

How can someone process words without hearing them? To me, it seems like you'd have to translate to your think-brains to make the talky thoughts make sense. See what I mean? In one way or another there has to be a voice. It is always present, right? Maybe people forget it and it just sounds like white noise.

How bout this. Try intentionally hearing it. Tell me what it sounds like. You seem like the Sam Elliot type, but don't let my mentioning his name taint the experiment. Maybe wait a while. Forget I mentioned him. Thank you by the way, and oh, do you sigh, whisper or make tongue movements when you read? I don't ask in a personal sense. You're a person, but no.

 

[braces_for_impact]

Wow, that's s lot of detail another1, and my first thought was that was that I only "hear" one voice, period. It's not the same as my spoken voice, it's monotone I suppose. Then I thought about it and realized that often, if I'm reading fiction or something similar, different characters do have different voices. Then I paid attention, and realized that even popular members here on the forums have different voices in my head. I will say the accent, timber and tone are somewhat muted. The differences are more subtle than hearing actual voices with accents, but the differences are still there. Thanks for inviting me to pay attention.

 

[bilby]

How can someone process words without hearing them? To me, it seems like you'd have to translate to your think-brains to make the talky thoughts make sense. See what I mean? In one way or another there has to be a voice. It is always present, right? Maybe people forget it and it just sounds like white noise.

How bout this. Try intentionally hearing it. Tell me what it sounds like. You seem like the Sam Elliot type, but don't let my mentioning his name taint the experiment. Maybe wait a while. Forget I mentioned him. Thank you by the way, and oh, do you sigh, whisper or make tongue movements when you read? I don't ask in a personal sense. You're a person, but no.

I can't tell you how it works; I can, with effort, imagine someone speaking the words I am reading; but if I did, the voice would come after the understanding - I would read the words, and then imagine them being read out loud by a voice.

Written words to me have no direct connection with sound; they are two different ways of getting information into my brain, and are not closely linked.

I might silently move my lips if I am planning a speech I am going to make; but I would never do so, nor do I sigh, whisper, or make tongue movements, when reading.

Reading is just reading. I don't think about it; any more than I think about tying my boot laces. I just do it. Of course I CAN think about it, but if I do, it just slows things down, and makes it harder to grasp the concepts.

ETA - I don't know who Sam Elliot is, so your mentioning him has had no effect.

 

[untermensche]

Here's what a deaf person has to say.

I don't vocalize when I read, and as a born-Deaf person, I don't ever hear a voice in my head anyway. So when I read, I just absorb the message, tone, images evoked by the printed words and all of that goes through my mind.

Sometimes if a sentence doesn't make sense, I'll re-read and think/analyze it in my mind some more.

https://www.quora.com/What-do-deaf-people-hear-internally-when-they-read

 

[another1]

If I know the voice of the author I sometimes hear their voice.

But I always hear a voice as I read.

The sight of the words triggers a sound. No "will" involved.

And people who say they don't hear a voice perhaps are not lying.

But they are using less of their brain and are therefore more likely to forget.

I'm never familiar with any author's voice. I don't look those things up before I read, but I bet their voices would creep in if I committed them to memory. I will note that old school science stuff sounds like an ancient, English asshole every time. And oddly, new age stuff always sounds peaceful and calm, like someone waving crystals around and doing weird stuff like that. My preconceptions and whatnot.

The sight of the words probably does trigger a sound. Mean words probably have different sounds than nice ones. Sexual words are probably unique in their own way.

But they are using less of their brain and are therefore more likely to forget.

Hmm. Listening to books probably uses less brain power than looking, but I seem to remember more of what I listen to. Listening to a book replaces my internal voice therefore it consumes less brain power, so maybe that is the situation there.

 

[untermensche]

Hmm. Listening to books probably uses less brain power than looking, but I seem to remember more of what I listen to. Listening to a book replaces my internal voice therefore it consumes less brain power, so maybe that is the situation there.

We evolved to listen. We can learn language by listening without any special training.

Reading is a trick. It is something that must be taught.

 

[another1]

The comment about the guy seeing sign-language in his mind when reading... that is some nice proof there. Wouldn't it be cool to hear inside a deaf person's mind? It would probably sound like varying tones. those little sine things. I bet the tones change with vibrations they feel around them.

Probably like this, but deaf people don't apply to a "human audio spectrum" so they're hearing Papa Smurf for all I know:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k

 

[bilby]

Hmm. Listening to books probably uses less brain power than looking, but I seem to remember more of what I listen to. Listening to a book replaces my internal voice therefore it consumes less brain power, so maybe that is the situation there.

We evolved to listen. We can learn language by listening without any special training.

Reading is a trick. It is something that must be taught.

Citation Needed.

 

[another1]

Reading is a trick. It is something that must be taught.

Right? But thinking isn't taught, and thinking requires language, huh. Not a language that is, or even can be spoken, but a language nonetheless.

 

[another1]

Chevy Pinto? Badass ride.

 

[bilby]

Reading is a trick. It is something that must be taught.

Right? But thinking isn't taught, and thinking requires language, huh. Not a language that is, or even can be spoken, but a language nonetheless.

I disagree.

Think about the complex shape of a beautiful woman, or of a canyon, or of a crankshaft from a V8 engine. What language did you use to describe that complex idea to yourself? Or did you just imagine it without language?

 

[untermensche]

We evolved to listen. We can learn language by listening without any special training.

Reading is a trick. It is something that must be taught.

Citation Needed.

Citation for what?

Nobody knows what the "A" symbol sounds like by genetic endowment.

People need to be taught what sound the symbols represent.

In the case of the deaf they have to associate the entire word with a mental "picture" of some kind. They still have to be taught which "picture" to associate with which word.

Try thinking for one time.

 

[bilby]

Citation Needed.

Citation for what?

Nobody knows what the "A" symbol sounds like by genetic endowment.

People need to be taught what sound the symbols represent.

No, they don't.

In the case of the deaf

And apparently you know it.

But as usual refuse to think too hard about it.

 

[another1]

Think about the complex shape of a beautiful woman, or of a canyon, or of a crankshaft from a V8 engine. What language did you use to describe that complex idea to yourself? Or did you just imagine it without language?

I just heard those sentences in my head. And yes, Sam Elliot said it until you mentioned the V-8 engine. When the engine was mentioned, I heard a neighbor of mine. He's always doing stuff to cars. I think it is all random, but it is all there. I don't deny that you believe there is no voice in your head. Maybe you think in sine waves, like the cool presets on a musician's keyboard. Maybe bells. Crickets. There has GOT to be something making sound in there, bilby.

 

[untermensche]

Citation for what?

Nobody knows what the "A" symbol sounds like by genetic endowment.

People need to be taught what sound the symbols represent.

No, they don't.

That's hysterical.

I go out of my way to make the distinction between this and the deaf and some still like wild pigs refuse to make any rational connections.

Arguing for the sake of argument is a game for children.

We all can clearly see who is doing it.

 

[bilby]

No, they don't.

That's hysterical.

I go out of my way to make the distinction between this and the deaf and some still like wild pigs refuse to make any rational connections.

Arguing for the sake of argument is a game for children.

We all can clearly see who is doing it.

Indeed we can.

 

[another1]

In the case of the deaf they have to associate the entire word with a mental "picture" of some kind. They still have to be taught which "picture" to associate with which word.

Yeah. Maybe bilby thinks in symbols. Maybe you're really good at math, and you do visual math. Me, I hear actresses and actors most of the time. Maybe you're either a visual or auditory thinker. Or a silent one (not likely). But yes there is a separate process happening outside reading, writing and even thinking - and the process has a sound or sight that we can't see out here in the physical world, even if it originates there.