The emerging science on cognitive dysfunction
Speaking out loud to nobody is an extension of our inner dialog. It’s caused by a motor command being triggered automatically.
In the early 20th century, Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that we speak out loud when we first learn to talk because our speech and thoughts aren’t connected.
After that, inner speech emerges, and our thoughts become more like verbal sentences.
There are plenty of reasons why speaking out loud can be helpful for adults. Some reasons for “private speech” are practicing a language, learning, and social skills.
It helps everyone remember something if they read it aloud instead of reading it in their inside voice.
There are also implications for speaking out loud and how we visualize things. For example, if someone is looking for a chicken in a ‘Where's Waldo?’-style illustration with a lot going on in the image, and they say the word “chicken,” they will visualize a chicken and can find it faster.
There have been numerous studies on the effects of self-talk on tennis players' performance. Generally, individuals are split into two groups and participate in an assessment, training sessions, and a final evaluation.
Conversely, if people use their speech to direct their actions, it improves their performance in carrying out tasks by helping them remember what they’re supposed to be doing.
Speaking to yourself in the third person causes self-distancing, which can reduce anxiety towards an upcoming job interview.
The people who learn through sound tend to repeat directions back to the person who gave them so they can remember. Likewise, they probably learned how to spell by saying the letters of a word over and over again.
One group is asked to practice positive self-talk. In the final assessment, the group that practices positive self-talk shows less anxiety and more confidence, and their performance improves.
Instead of saying “I can do this,” people who speak to themselves in the third person by saying “you can do this, John,” feel less anxious and nervous about the task than people who speak to themselves in the first person.
One study published in Scientific Reports proved that speaking to yourself in the third person is the most effective way of calming yourself down.
It can help us to concentrate, depending on what we’re saying. For example, researchers have gotten people to utter nonsense out loud while trying to perform unrelated tasks. Since humans aren’t great at multitasking, it typically impedes their performance at the task.
The person who speaks to themselves as a result of mental illness is a different story. For example, people who have schizophrenia can hear another entity speaking in their head and sometimes respond to it aloud.
Once we’ve learned to connect our thoughts to our speech, we tend not to do it as much. But in adulthood, we still do it, and there are other reasons for this.
There are other harmful forms of self-talk, too. One example of this is negative self-talk, which generally involves a person discouraging and criticizing themselves out loud.
With people who suffer from depression or anxiety, this inner dialog can be harder to cut through. When people’s internal dialog begins to wander too much, they can end up incoherent and nonsensical.
Speaking to yourself becomes a concern when it’s the result of auditory hallucinations, like speaking to another entity in your head that only you can hear and that's separate from your own thoughts.
People do this to process their emotions and thoughts and to better carry out tasks.
If it is a habit that you can’t stop and want to, if you feel distressed about it, or it's predominantly negative self-talk, it may be a good idea to ask someone for help.
Sources: (Neuroscience Letters) (Nature) (Big Think) (Medical News Today)(Healthline) (Perceptual and Motor Skills)
If people are struggling with difficult emotions, it can help to talk through them. Like it can help to speak to a friend or a therapist about issues, it can also help to speak to yourself when nobody is around.
Essentially it can help us understand what it is exactly we’re feeling, whether it be grief, guilt, or any other feeling, and help us come to terms with accepting what we’re feeling.
We all have inner dialog. Some people have more than others. This internal dialog can wander. Late at night, we may notice that our inner thoughts wander almost randomly. However, we need to be able to cut through this noise to carry out our days.
The bottom line is that speaking to yourself is entirely normal for the most part and has many functions other than being a symptom of a mental health condition.
There are also benefits to talking to yourself outside of cognition and concentration. For example, you might increase your confidence and motivation by speaking to yourself positively.
In certain circumstances, being caught talking to yourself is embarrassing. It makes you look like you’ve lost your mind! Generally, it's understood that we speak to communicate, and doing so without it being directed at someone or not being heard by anyone defeats the purpose. However, this isn't true. Speaking serves other functions too.
How many times have we been looking for our keys and have asked ourselves, “where are my keys?” Saying it out loud helps us find them because it reminds us of what we’re looking for, and we don’t lose focus. And that's just one example.
To explore why we speak to ourselves, which is commonly referred to as "self-talk," click through this gallery.
Talking to yourself is healthy (most of the time)
It's pretty normal! Most of the time...
HEALTH Psychology
In certain circumstances, being caught talking to yourself is embarrassing. It makes you look like you’ve lost your mind! Generally, it's understood that we speak to communicate, and doing so without it being directed at someone or not being heard by anyone defeats the purpose. However, this isn't true. Speaking serves other functions too.
How many times have we been looking for our keys and have asked ourselves, “where are my keys?” Saying it out loud helps us find them because it reminds us of what we’re looking for, and we don’t lose focus. And that's just one example.
To explore why we speak to ourselves, which is commonly referred to as "self-talk," click through this gallery.