You think more words than you speak – perhaps because language really does shape the way we navigate the world
THERE I go again, talking to myself. Wherever I am, and whatever I'm doing, words bounce around my head in an incessant chatter. I am not alone in my internal babbling. Measuring the contents of people's minds is difficult, but it seems that up to 80 per cent of our mental experiences are verbal. Indeed, the extent of our interior monologue may vastly exceed the number of words we speak out loud. "On average, 70 per cent of our total verbal experience is in our head," estimates Lera Boroditsky of Stanford University in California. The sheer volume of unspoken words would suggest that language is more than just a tool for communicating with others. But what else could it be for?
One answer to that question is emerging: language helps ...
I found this article really interesting and potentially applicable in the clinic. Simply asking the patient to name the body part that they are about to move or exercise could enhance their perception. Increasing normal feedback is a rehabilitation aim, either verbally from the therapist or by vision via a mirror, but using the patient's own language maybe we can engage other higher processing systems top-down.
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