Topic summary
Inner speech
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Intrapersonal communication.
Function and importance
Inner speech may be needed for many higher mental processes to work. It has a vital role in mental functions such as shaping and controlling one's thoughts, regulating one's behavior, reasoning, problem-solving, and planning as well as remembering. It often accompanies diverse communicative tasks, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing, for example, to understand an expression or to formulate a new one. More specific applications are to calm oneself down in stressful situations and to internalize new knowledge when learning a second language. This happens when repeating new vocabulary to oneself in order to remember it. Intrapersonal communication can also be applied to a great variety of creative tasks, like using it to come up with musical compositions, paintings, or dance routines.