Question for NTs about how you think

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No narration during replays of memories for me; now, that would be distracting!

Damn, I wish my thoughts were less NT.

Oh yes of course I also have visual /picture memories. But none from before I could speak. In fact I have no memories before about the age of five though I'm reliably informed I started to speak after the age of two. I'm discounting things that I almost "remember" (but not really) because I know there are photographs of them in my childhood photo albums.

When, in response to your post, I tested my picture memory by trying to think of an event that has not been photographed, and visual memories that I have of this event I can jump from visual memory to another visual memory of the same person, say, without too obviously thinking in words to get from one image to the next, but I can feel the "verbal voice" hovering very nearby, and I think the whole process is just so fast that I can't analyse it completely reliably. But I get the sense that linguistic thought is involved almost all the time.

Again, just to make it clear, this is not distracting, more like a thread that runs throught it all, holds it together, and only comes to the forefront of my consciousness if I want it to.

My memories play like video tape...live in motion and sometimes with audio track. So I get whatever audio is playing as a part of the memory. So for example I can replay how the person was standing, their facial expression, anything I was aware of in the environment, what they were wearing and what they said including tone of voice.

In those instances, when I do get audio, I hear their voice not mine as it is not part of my own internal dialogue...it is a memory replay. It's basically a mini movie in my head. However, my own internal dialogue can comment whilst the movie plays if it wants to lol

Its how I used to remember lectures at college and how I managed to get away without revising for exams and still get straight A grades. I didn't remember the entire lecture, just the really important bits and only some of the time. I remember in a variety of ways so that is only one way I could memorise information. Good memory!

Unfortunately years of being out of the academic environment and suffering from fatigue along with vile brain fog has dented my memory some...although it is starting to improve again since I recently returned to studying. I am hopeful that I can return my memory to its original level of efficiency lol.

Last edited by bumble on 27 Jan 2012, 12:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.

+1

I find it hard to imagine what a 'problem-solving' or 'task oriented' inner voice must really sound like. I've tried going "If I put this there, then do this, perhaps this will happen..." but it just feels contrived, or a bit loopy.

The idea that almost everyone I've ever dealt with in life might think like this every day is hard to deal with.

I do have an inner voice, but it tends to talk about art, politics etc. while I'm getting on with my daily tasks. It's quite disconnected from what I'm actually doing.

Yes and no. It depends on how old the memory is. If it is very recent then it could almost approximate a "replay". But over time it is less of a replay (and it is never an exact replay even if fresh) and more of an "emotionally weighted" replay in which the memory gets slightly re-interpreted and reshaped, depending on the importance attached to it, the emotional element (which you almost relive with the memory, but that too changes over time), possibly your own changed perspective through the passage of time etc. .

Every "replay" of the memory changes it some more. Hence (amongst otther things) the notorious unreliability of witness memory in court. People are mostly not lying when their account departs from what actually happened, but over time and by frequent replay, re-telling and re-living of the memory it has simply changed. But that's a whole other thread!

Edit: I could have been more precise, lots of witnesses do lie in court, intentionally. That is not what I'm talking about. I mean unintentional deviations from how things actually were (if that can be shown through CCTV, or other means) and even their own, earlier accounts of the same event.



My impression is that it is the latter, the memory is about the dialogue, not an inner voice narration of it.

Last edited by readingbetweenlines on 27 Jan 2012, 12:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I also do that, but I can turn my inner dialogue into a task orientated one if I want to. My inner dialogue tends to be under my own conscious control a lot of the time. So if a task is boring my mind will natter away to itself about something more interesting whilst I do the task on autopilot. If the task is interesting, I tend to be more absorbed in it and can use my inner voice to plan it out.

And as I've said, my inner voice is constant dialogue, rehearsed conversations mostly. Sometimes just chatting to myself, joking and rapping and stuff.

Me too. I am thoroughly confused now.

Yes, NTs, do you not think about stuff that isn't what you're looking at? Is this what you call daydreaming? How much does thinking interfere with doing stuff? Can you fart and chew gum at the same time?

I can type and watch T.V at the same time. David Attenborough is on lol

Plus I touch type and don't need to look at the keyboard or screen if I don't want to.

I have both. I have a running commentary going about whatever I'm interested in, and at the same time I have to deliberately talk myself through whatever task I am doing so I can drown out the commentary and try to concentrate on the task. If I don't talk myself through a task, I just tend to wander aimlessly in a fog listening to the talk radio commentary in my head, interspersed with random songs playing.

Weird. I've never heard of Autistics not having "narratives" before. That seems really odd to me since I've always had both video-style along with narratives going on in my head all the time as far back as I can remember (except for before I could speak myself, which was at a relatively young age). It IS very distracting, but I'm so used to it I can't imagine what it would be like for the narratives not to be there.

Sometimes it drives me bonkers but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it.

I think in words and pictures, but mostly words. The only time my mind actually shuts up is when I'm in bed. Otherwise, nearly all through the day, my mind is constantly chattering away - especially when I'm out.

I'm not fully understanding the way the article was written (had too much detail and wasn't sure when it was getting to the point), but I'm just asking, is this thread trying to say that NTs think in words and have chatter in their minds and Autistics don't? Because I have constant chatter in my mind all the time, and sometimes it's not a good thing because that makes me more anxious about everythihg, due to overthinking. If my mind just stopped chattering, my anxieties might be reduced.

Sometimes it drives me bonkers too. In my 20's and 30's I decided I was going to do something about it so I took up meditation. Seated meditation worked sort of. It quieted the narrative voice somewhat even though it didn't entirely mute it. Also the effect only lasted as long as I was literally seated and meditating. There was no carryover to other times, which is what I was hoping for.

Next I attempted to get this "quietness" to carryover to other times so I tried that form of meditation where you really really focus on what you are doing and pay attention to each sensation. This was very interesting but it didn't quiet the narrative voice. Instead the voice took to narrating each focused thing I was doing/feeling.

Now I'm in my 40's and I've made my peace with it. I accept that it simply won't shut up. Making my peace with it did calm the my frantic efforts in my 20's and 30's to get away from it so that feels a lot better-- to not be chasing something I couldn't get. But it still is annoying at times.

II've heard (read) some professional writers say that this is an occupational hazard for them, especially fiction writers. They have to be constantly in observant narrator mode to gather material for their novels. The writers who have talked about this (I think Stephen King was one) resign themselves to it. I'm not a writer but I could certainly relate to the experience when I read about that.

I think that's how mine got started. I read voraciously as a child and it made me look at the world from the perspective of a writer. When I was around 7-8 years old I started narrating everything that was happening as if I was going to write a book about it. Did you read a lot as a child?

I turned out to be very good at writing as I got older, and a lot of people thought I should make a career out of it. The thing is, I loved music, and I absolutely hated writing. I have both going on in my head though, narration/commentary and music playing. I've always wished I could be a radio DJ but I'm too quiet and daydreamy for that.