Talking to yourself
Is talking to yourself normal? What the research says
People often talk through a problem out loud, on a walk or while looking for something. Researchers have studied pieces of that habit. Here is what they found, how far it goes, and what it does not show.
The short answer
People often talk to themselves. That is the opening of a study on speaking a name out loud. A separate review treats silent inner speech as a real part of thinking, one that varies from person to person. And a set of lab studies found that the words you use, your own name instead of "I", can change how you handle a stressful moment.
Very little is known about what self-directed speech is for, and none of this research put people on a walk. A fair reading is narrower than the question. Talking to yourself is ordinary. In a few specific tasks, it helps, and sometimes it gets in the way.
What the studies found
1. A spoken name can help a search
Lupyan and Swingley (2012) had people look for common objects and sometimes say the target's name aloud. Speaking helped when the name and the object were strongly associated. As the name fit less well, speaking started to impair the search. The authors also say that very little is known about the functions of this kind of speech.
2. The words you use can matter
Kross et al. (2014) ran seven studies with 585 people. Using your own name, or words such as "you", instead of "I", helped people take a step back. In studies of a first impression and of public speaking, outside raters scored that group as performing better. They showed less distress, and they described upcoming stressors as more of a challenge and less of a threat. The paper is about the wording of self-talk. It does not say the words were spoken aloud.
3. Silent inner speech is part of thinking
Alderson-Day and Fernyhough (2015) reviewed research on inner speech, the silent kind, also called covert speech or verbal thinking. It varies among people and across life, and it appears to perform significant functions in human cognition. That is not the same as saying the words out loud. The review does not test talking on a walk.
Where the evidence stops
These are lab tasks and a review. Lupyan and Swingley found a benefit only when the spoken name fit the thing. A poor fit made the search worse. Kross and colleagues studied wording under social stress, in the lab, and the paper does not describe people speaking aloud while walking. The inner-speech review is about silent speech.
So talking to yourself is common, a spoken label can help or hurt a search, and how you address yourself can matter in a stressful moment. None of that shows that a muttered walk will make you think better in general. It also is not a claim about health.
If you want to try it
When a thought shows up, say it in a full sentence, as if you were explaining it to a friend. If you are naming something you are looking for, use the name that actually fits. For a stressful moment, try your own name instead of "I".
Reading a word aloud so you can recognise it later is a different finding, on saying it out loud. Music, a wandering mind, and walks are on walking without headphones.
This is not a rule. Some problems are easier to think through in silence.
Where Yuho fits
Yuho is an iPhone voice diary for thinking out loud on walks. It is made by C (Chenxi), who lives in Stratford in east London and walks the canal to Victoria Park. He has about 130 hours of his own walk recordings.
The design rule is one tap, then nothing: no prompts, no streaks. Yuho keeps your voice, the photos you take, and the route together, so a place can hand back the thought you had there. Core features are free. Some extras are paid with credits or Pro.
Yuho will not make talking to yourself better for you. The studies above are about a search, the wording of self-talk, and silent inner speech. Yuho is one way to keep what you say, in the place you said it. A plain voice memo works too.
Frequently asked questions
Is talking to yourself normal?
People often do it. Lupyan and Swingley (2012) start from that, in a study of speaking a name out loud during a visual search, and they note that very little is known about what this speech is for. A review of silent inner speech treats it as a real part of thinking that varies from person to person (Alderson-Day and Fernyhough, 2015). Neither paper is about walks.
Is talking to yourself good for you?
Not in general. Speaking the right name can speed a search, and a poor fit can slow it. In lab studies of social stress, using your own name instead of "I" was tied to better rated performance and less distress. A review of silent inner speech says it does real work in thinking. None of these show that talking to yourself is good for you in every case, or on a walk.
Does saying a name out loud help you find something?
Sometimes. In a visual search task, speaking the target's name aloud helped when the name and the object were strongly associated. As the name fit less well, speaking started to impair the search (Lupyan and Swingley, 2012).
Does it matter if you say "I" or your own name?
In the situations Kross and colleagues tested, yes. Using your own name, or words such as "you", rather than "I", helped people take a step back. Across seven studies and 585 people, that wording was tied to better performance under social stress, as scored by outside raters, and to less distress. The paper is about the words used in self-talk. It does not show that the words were spoken aloud, and it is not about a walk.
Is inner speech the same as talking out loud?
No. Inner speech is silent verbal thinking. Alderson-Day and Fernyhough (2015) reviewed that research and concluded that inner speech appears to perform significant functions in human cognition, while varying across people and across life. Talking out loud is a different act. The review does not test it.
References
- Lupyan, G., & Swingley, D. (2012). Self-directed speech affects visual search performance. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(6), 1068–1085. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2011.647039
- Kross, E., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., Park, J., Burson, A., Dougherty, A., Shablack, H., Bremner, R., Moser, J., & Ayduk, O. (2014). Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(2), 304–324. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035173
- Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin, 141(5), 931–965. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000021