Who do you \"hear\"?

[Bet51987]

When you read a book, your saying the words in your mind like you are doing right now reading this text. My question is what kind of voice do you hear?

For example, when I read a book written by Carl Sagan, I \"hear\" his voice, and when I read a book by the physicist Lisa Randall, I hear her voice as if she is lecturing.

If it's just a generic book, and I haven't heard the person before, then I hear me in my voice. My dad says, when he reads, he hears just a monotonic voice all the time.

I'm just curious....

Bettina

[Lothar]

I don't really hear it in a voice... it's more like abstract text... like the words just are. I see them in order, but I don't put any sound to them.

This is even true of words written by someone I know well. I read things Catherine wrote, and there's still no \"voice\" to them.

[Krom]

x2 Lothar

Even when I am typing most of the time I don't put any \"sound\" to my typing. I know I don't put sounds into words I read because the only way I can understand romanized Japanese words most of the time is by actually sounding them out until I memorize the word.

[VonVulcan]

I don't really hear it in a voice... it's more like abstract text... like the words just are. I see them in order, but I don't put any sound to them.

Ditto

[Sapphire Wolf]

I don't really hear it in a voice... it's more like abstract text... like the words just are. I see them in order, but I don't put any sound to them.

This is even true of words written by someone I know well. I read things Catherine wrote, and there's still no "voice" to them.

Same here

[Darktalyn1]

I hear my own voice

[Avder]

If its a work of fiction I often use random character voices I have memorized from other sources. For instance, when I went and read through the entire collection of PvP webcomics, I ended up using the voice of Wally from Dilbert The Animated Series for Cole.

For nonfiction works, I usually hear a single character voice, or if I speed read, none at all.

[ccb056]

the only voices in my head are mine ...

[WarAdvocat]

When I read fiction, I don't usually even read 'individual words', I pretty much soak up a phrase or sentence at a time, sometimes more. Even dialogue doesn't get translated into a voice in my head. I am more of a visualizer, so I 'see' the story in my head.

When I'm reading NONFICTION or EDUCATIONAL books, at times I 'hear' my own voice. Usually when I'm not absorbing the subject matter effortlessly, I find that I will 'read aloud to myself in my mind' to help it sink in.

[Money!]

I think I hear my own voice.

[dundun]

never thought of witch voice im hearing.
but would guess its my own. have to try it out.

[Bet51987]

never thought of witch voice im hearing, but would guess its my own. have to try it out.

Before you try it out, try to imagine a specific person that you know or have heard. I want to know if you "hear" that person.

I posed this question in a science forum, and out of eight replys so far, seven "hear" a representation of some voice like I do. I find it impossible to read a book and not say the words silently, or hear the lecturer in his/her own voice.

I'm surprised by the percentages of those that do and don't between here and the science forum. I hope more will respond to this post.

Bettina

[JMEaT]

When I read I usually hear what that person might sound like. Like when I read your text I hear a soft spoken girl.

[Testiculese]

I do the same as Chris, I play a movie in the back of my head, and don't really see the words. If, say, it's a western, I'll borrow from various movies for the set, costume, and I'll pick voices that seem to match the descriptions. Big fat guy? He gets a rough, smoker's voice. etc.

[WillyP]

Me too... and when I listen to music, I have an image of what the sound looks like.

[VonVulcan]

Me too... and when I listen to music, I have an image of what the sound looks like.

Was that a precription medication?

[Drakona]

When reading text written casually (i.e., emails, forum posts--not technical documents) by someone I know, I almost always hear it in their voice.

When reading novels, I usually hear characters speaking in different voices, and the narrative in my own voice.

When reading technical documents, web sites, things like that, sometimes I'll hear an appropriate voice (i.e., I hear an \"announcer\" voice for banner ads), but often I'll hear no voice and just absorb the text.

When reading things that don't vocalize well (e.g., code), I hear no voice.

If I've just been talking to someone for a long time, or watching a movie, I'll often hear whatever I read next in their voice. The effect is often comical. I had a roommate once who noted that it was creepy to be my roommate because I would frequently start giggling randomly and stop without explanation. This is one of the causes.

[Flabby Chick]

I act out the words when reading novels and such using imaginary voices.

E-mails are in the individuals own voice, or mine if i don't know them.

Manuals and Tech stuff i can't read. Does my bleedin head in, usually ending up wth me flinging the crap across the room.

[Top Gun]

It's really hard to describe for me. For example, when reading this thread, the \"voice\" I heard in my head might have been a little bit like mine, but I think it was more what Lothar said, a sort of mental abstratcion. I don't really \"hear\" the words; I just understand what they're saying. It may have something to do with the fact that I read so voraciously as a child; I got to the point where I was living a story instead of seeing it as a movie playing in my head. However, there have been exceptions. The first time I re-read Lord of the Rings after seeing the trilogy, I kept having the actors' voices pop up when I was reading their characters' lines (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, since the casting for the trilogy was absolutely spot-on ). However, it was something that I actually had to focus on to \"hear\"; if I ignored it, I was back to my normal, \"disembodied\" method of comprehension.

[Mobius]

Bettina, that's why you can only read a page every minute or so. Getting rid of that internal dialog can increase reading speed by a factor of 10.

It's actually pretty poor the way children are taught to read. Traditionally, reading is nothing more than \"reading aloud\" but keeping your mouth shut. It's amazingly wasteful of your energy, and limits your reading speed to the speed you can \"say the words to yourself\". But you don't need to say the words to comprehend or remember them.

What you seek is comprehension, not a movie.

For me at least, I maintain the internal dialog only for actual speech, and the rest is just words, not speech.

For technical stuff, I can read very very fast indeed, but for novels, and more interesting/emotionally charged stuff, I bring the internal dialog back, and slow down, to enjoy it more.

[Bet51987]

Bettina, that's why you can only read a page every minute or so. Getting rid of that internal dialog can increase reading speed by a factor of 10.

It's actually pretty poor the way children are taught to read. Traditionally, reading is nothing more than "reading aloud" but keeping your mouth shut. It's amazingly wasteful of your energy, and limits your reading speed to the speed you can "say the words to yourself". But you don't need to say the words to comprehend or remember them.

What you seek is comprehension, not a movie.

For me at least, I maintain the internal dialog only for actual speech, and the rest is just words, not speech.

For technical stuff, I can read very very fast indeed, but for novels, and more interesting/emotionally charged stuff, I bring the internal dialog back, and slow down, to enjoy it more.

I can't speed read. Everytime I try my eyes lock on to words and try to build a story. I can skim, but the internal dialog is still there. When I read your post or the instructions to a swing set, I am using the internal voice that is me.

The only books I read are school related, bibles at one time, science fiction, and cosmology and physics books. These all require me to build images to enjoy and to simply read without images is taking too much away from my experience. I can vividly build grand images, see characters, and recall them at any time during my read. I don't have a "need for speed" or read technical manuals, but I do know exactly what you mean. My dad, who is an executive, speed reads all the time and I've seen his finger chug along pretty fast.

I feel sorry for those who read and don't "hear" or draw images. They don't know what their missing. You are able to do both.

Bettina

P.S... In fact, thats why I get emotional reading certain news stories.... I just can't stop building images of what I read.

[WarAdvocat]

Reading pretty much takes the place in my life that television takes for many. I'm very uninformed about television. I don't watch anything on TV but discovery/learning channel/edumacational-type stuff... with the occasional IMAX film in HD thrown in.

I do need to pay more attention when I read to how I'm experiencing it though. I'll be reading some tonight. Maybe I can bring some more light to this topic.

Oh, and one more thing. When I'm reading posts from people I know, I tend to 'hear' it in their voice... Well not really \"hear\". It's more like I filter their words through my mental image of how they would say it.. But it happens a lot faster than if they were talking.

[Samuel Dravis]

I don't really hear a voice when I read something, but I do get a sort of impression of the personality of the character or person; I kinda feel the way they would say it. I'm a speed reader on everything except textbooks.

[dundun]

found out that I hear several voices. from my own and til imagened voices and voices of known people.
dependes very much on the book, how intresting it is.
got John Goodman stuck in my head as Patricia Cornwells
character Pete Marino.
a boring book i hear my own voice,and sometime no voice at all, speed reads when it gets boring.

[Kilarin]

Getting rid of that internal dialog can increase reading speed by a factor of 10. It's actually pretty poor the way children are taught to read.

But is it worth it to go that fast? I took a course in speed reading, and I did fairly well at it. I can get my speed WAY up there with adequate comprehension to pass tests. The problem is, it's not FUN. If the book is the LEAST bit interesting, I find myself suddenly slowing down and reading at a speed where I can savor and enjoy the book (around 300wpm). So I almost never do it.
Speed reading is for those rare circumstances where I have to complete a book that I really don't WANT to read or with a time limit. It's like choking down your breakfast really fast when you are late for work. Sure, you got the nutrition, but you didn't get time to TASTE anything.

[Valin Halcyon]

I read at a rate fast enough to be considered the rate of speech. Words flow off the page into my mind, where it is then converted into sound. I DO hear the people talking, though I believe the voices are there own. If the book is especially good at describing the way people speak, my mind is able to create the voice for each character. I don't know how, it just does. Even as I type this, I hear myself speaking what I type. Each of you have your own voice in my head as well as I read what you have to say on the forums, though, as I've met a few of you in person, the real voices always replace the made up one.

It's not so much about hearing voices, as it is translating the form of information in your mind. Being able to do it as I do, uses more your right half of your brain than your left side. So if you stutter or have trouble reading and ejoying it...perhaps you're just attacking the activity with too much pure interpretation logic?

[Lothar]

It's not so much about hearing voices, as it is translating the form of information in your mind.

Exactly. I don't translate the form of information into a "voice", though -- it's more abstract than that.

For Bettina: you don't need to feel sorry for me. It's not like I *can't* hear character voices when I read a novel. It's just that my normal mode of reading doesn't involve anything that would properly be called a "voice". I create structure and understanding.

-----

I wonder... for those of you who hear a voice when you read... what does my voice sound like?

[Isaac]

This is weird for me, because i hear my own voice as a little kid.

[Bet51987]

I wonder... for those of you who hear a voice when you read... what does my voice sound like?

My religious instructor.

Bettina

[Dedman]

I hear my own voice regardless of what type of book or text it is. That is one reason I am such a painfully slow reader.

I wonder... for those of you who hear a voice when you read... what does my voice sound like?

Amazingly like my own

[RoBoT]

If it's fiction literature, the narration is my own unless it is written in the first person. In that case, it is the voice of the person narrating. If it's nonfiction, it's my voice. If it's an email or forum post, mine.

I remember back when I was little I'd hear this deep, ominous voice as I read, as though I were being read to by someone like Gandalf from LOTR. I'm glad that didn't last long!

[Sage]

I read all my boooks alloud! So I hear myself. Yeas.