Question for NTs about how you think

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Oops. I was referring to the last sentence.

I think that this is what we're trying to figure out in this thread. Do NTs have the voice that is automatically there? Do autistics have the voice that is automatically there? Is the voice that is automatically there much more common in one population than the other?

I just realized that this one situation in which I wish that I knew MOAR people, so I can question them about these things.

Goes back to breathing in manual mode.

I'll say my cognition is hit or miss when choosing to make direct eye contact. I sense the need on the other end for this and keep this side of it going, otherwise it is disruptive. I can tell when I break it, because the other person tries to move into another position. I'm not sure why that is so important here. It's as if they can no longer communicate when eye contact is lost.... they are silent until the eyes re-lock again.

I'll say I have looked' to make sure I know what's going on in there to read them. But the constant eye-lock isn't apparently in my M.O.

Fraac said that special interests in people will cultivate this in Aspies. But there is an HFA poster here on the board that did all this subconsciously, as in natural ability.

For my part, I certainly don't have any sort of 'inner monologue', and certainly not one that is constant. I can comment on things non-verbally inside my own mind, but I don't do it often and I don't think that's what we're talking about here anyway. I'm usually too busy having a song or a passage from a book looping over and over in my head for there to be any room for any sort of stream of consciousness thinking.

Please do. That would be interesting.

I got 4 responses by now:

1) He needs almost always a graphic or symbolic represantation of what he is trying to learn and that's why he finds geometry easier than psychology or philosophy, and he also talks about feeling the desire to tell someone what he has just learned, so I supose he imagines a dialog with someone too, I' ll ask him later.

2) He says he used to have an endless internal monologue that tormented him, but when he noticed that he became interested in meditation and learned to control it. He also says that he thinks that the endless monologue is the natural human condition and being able to stop it gives you a feeling of welfare and freedom.

3) He says he uses synapses

4) He says he mentally argues with himself.

Hmm. Those aren't different from our answers.

I agree with number 3 as I've experienced the 'welfare and freedom' several times, it's a stunning change from normal.

I think our questions aren't sharp enough, because I'm far from convinced that nothing is going on here.

I think your 4 responders need an assessment

These answers are not clear. Three of four people did not seem to answer the question. Using pictures to learn things does not tell us whether or not (1) has an internal monologue. (3) is useless. (4) just argues with self, but does not say whether or not (4) has an internal monologue that is "automatically there".

I say that what ever the difference in thinking is, this obviously isn't it.

Why do you think NTs' planning can be put off by verbal noise but autistics' can't?

I dunno, someone needs to make me do the test they were doing so I can do farther research.

Yes, my question was too general maybe we should think some and ask them at yahoo answers?

Edited: I have just searched "inner voice" and there are a lot of questions and answers about, although some refer to consciousness.
I found this one interesting, it's a question made by a deaf
Does all hearing people thiking the words or thinking the pictures?

I'll try to answer this for you the best I can. I don't have any type of autism as far as I'm aware.

Thinking for me is not a constant verbal stream. I think in pictures and feelings most of the time, and I don't need words to understand everything that I sense and do.

That being said, for abstract thought, I do think using a voice in my head. I find it hard to imagine how else it could be possible to think abstractly, since you would need to use some type of language to do so.

With problem solving, thinking verbally helps me to remember which possibilities I've tried and which I have yet to try. Once again, no need to describe everything verbally to understand it.

That all being said, I think the study in that first link was kind of stupid. All it showed was that NT's were more likely to be distracted by repeating a word over and over while working on a problem... You can just as easily interpret the results as showing that autistic people are better at focusing on one task while shutting out distractions.

Read this description of strictly visual abstract thought written by Temple Grandin.

Can someone give an example of a verbal abstract thought? I am not sure what this would entail.