The Rate of Inner Speech

Self-reports of elliptical inner speech were measured to assess the speed of verbal problem solving. Rates of inner speech were correlated with physiological measurements of subvocal activity during verbal problem solving to evaluate the association between self-reports of verbal cognition and covert oral behavior. Sub-vocalization was electromyographically recorded during the silent solution of verbal tasks. Subjects reported the elliptical inner speech used to solve each problem (elliptical word count) and expanded that volume of words into a full statement of their internal problem-solving strategies (extended word count). The speed of processing and task simplicity were important in obtaining a high correlation between elliptical and extended word counts. The extended word count represented an equivalent rate of speech in excess of 4,000 words per minute. The volume of subvocal activity was correlated with the elliptical word count to assess whether subvocalization could be linked to introspection. This correlation was stronger during the rapid solution of simple problems.