Do you hear the words in your mind while reading?

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While reading the words in this post do you hear the words in your mind? If so in who's voice?

I assumed everyone heard the words in their mind when reading, but apparently not according to this thread:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt216217.html

If I'm reading text written by someone famous I usually hear their voice speaking the words I'm reading. Similarly, some members here with avatars of famous people - I hear their posts spoken by the person in their avatar.

What proportion of people do and don't hear the words being spoken in their mind?

Yes. Usually it's an almost gender neutral, leaning toward male voice. ETA: However, if it's someone speaking in a direct way, such as a user on a forum like this one, I will "hear" female voices in a higher pitch than the usual more neutral one.

I identify strongly as female, BTW.

No; I read too fast for that to happen. I can slow down and mentally read something out loud, but I don't, usually, unless I'm reading poetry.

I never really thought about it. I haven't read (a book anyway), in a long time.

Not only but, actual sounds, intonations, flavours (scents). I enjoy reading other fan fiction especially erotic fan fictions... because erotica you need to convey and animate sensory inputs of pleasure. How do you animate private moments, with just a bunch of inanimate texts. You need colourful expressions.

Somehow, JK Rowling lost this ability to write colourfully, that the stories became lifeless, bland as soda cracker scented paper it was written on. Like before you could actually feel Harry's Justified spazoid fustrations at a brain dead manchild like minstry of Magic, paralysed teachers, an evading dumbledore, That pretty much she expressed what every young adult's fear is, being unprepaired to face a very bleeped up world. So it was as if I could actually hear Potter's rising tempers, and feel his stress (pretty much having Voldemort's mind embedded into his).

If there is one thing I hate in literature is lifeless bland gibberish. So there is alot of "acting" (non verbal postures, and what not that must be described).

I feel like I have two levels of reading comprehension...for the first 5-10 minutes, if I'm very isolated (much longer if near noise and distraction), I typically have to process each word read and find it very difficult to imagine or, really, completely understand what I'm reading. During this period, I hear the words aloud in my head. After the 5-10 minutes, I sort of enter into a reading trance wherein I'm able to read substantially faster, imagine everything vividly and don't so much as hear voices as absorb the words and their meanings off the page. I think plenty of kids detest reading until they become old or proficient enough to enter that second state.

Not only that, but sometimes I try to hear the appropriate accents of the characters.

I don't really hear anyone else's voice.... I can't describe it, I do hear the words in my mind but they sound like my own thoughts, not a distinct voice.

Yes, I always do. But I don't know who's tone of voice I ''hear'' it in, though. It is a very blank tone of voice, although not monotone at all.

Tally what you want to look for if you are interested in this is a population break down of thinking styles. I have read about this a long time ago but I can't remember the source now. I'm 90% confident that the population breakdown was approx.

80% audio and audio and visual
15% audio only
5% visual only

If you think about it the numbers makes sense considering part of our brains are uniquely built to process language. Cultures everywhere on earth have developed language. It's a universal human skill and one of the most critical factors of our success as a species. It makes sense that internal dialogue is present in the majority of people.

I always have an audio component to reading together with visual. The voice is any voice that I want. I know this is going to sound stupid but lately it's been Morgan Freeman's voice. Guess I've been watching too many documentaries

This may be diverting slightly off topic but one thing that has seemed odd to me is that it feels completely unnatural for me to talk through math problems and it's is a struggle for me to translate what is going on in my head into words. This seems odd to me because my reading style is audio/visual, so it would make sense that working through math problems would involve an audio component also. To be clear I read the a math question like I would anything else but I lose the audio component when coming up with the solution. Do you guys "talk through" math problems in your head similar to reading or is it visual only?

I always do, in my own voice. I didn't think it was possible to read without hearing the words...

I can do it both with a voice and without a voice. I sometimes reach this level on concentration (hahaha sometimes? ) Where I just intake the information and lose awareness of myself and my environment. I can spend hours and hours reading. At that point, there is no voice. If I'm spending time reading for entertainment, I'll call up a voice to read with...

I was trying to think of a way to explain how it is with me. Then I came upon Dots' post---and that's how it is with me.

This is my experience.

I hear words, but they are not always the words I am reading. Usually they go something like "Let's look up something online, that will be interesting" "I wonder what there is to eat in the kitchen" and "I can't take this anymore!"

Sometimes if I am reading a non fictional book by someone whos voice I can hear through the means of internet like youtube, I will look them up to hear them, and I will then read the words in their voice. Otherwise the voice that I read in is a male's stern and business like monotone voice for some reason.

Well people born deaf certainly read without hearing the words. I didn't think any hearing people did so, however.