What Does Your Inner Voice Sound Like?
Dialogue, shorthand, other people, critic or coach
Most people assume everyone else thinks the way they do. Research on inner speech shows the opposite: some people argue with themselves in full sentences, some think in single words, some still hear a parent's phrases decades later, and some report very little inner speech at all. This test maps five qualities of the voice in your head, using the structure of a questionnaire built specifically to measure those differences.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Think about the words that run through your head on an ordinary day - walking, working, before sleep. There are no right answers, and 'not much' is a real answer.
What it measures
The five qualities in the revised Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire: how dialogic your inner speech is, how condensed, how often other people's voices appear in it, how critical it is, and how much you use it to steady and encourage yourself. It is about the form of your inner speech, not its topics: the overthinking and rumination tests on this site measure how much you dwell on problems.
Based on: Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire - Revised (Alderson-Day et al., 2018; original by McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough, 2011)
Possible results
Inner dialogue
Whether your inner speech runs as a back-and-forth conversation.
Condensed speech
Whether your inner speech comes in shorthand rather than full sentences.
Other people's voices
How often other people's words and voices turn up in your inner speech.
Inner critic
How much your inner speech judges and criticises you.
Inner coach
How much you use inner speech to calm, encourage and steer yourself.
Common questions
Does everyone have an inner voice?
Not to the same degree. Studies that sample people's thoughts at random moments find wide differences: some people are talking to themselves much of the time, others rarely, and some report thinking mostly in images, feelings or wordless ideas. Low scores on every bar here describe a legitimate way of thinking, not a missing part.
Is it normal to have other people's voices in my thoughts?
Yes. Imagining what a friend would say, or hearing a parent's phrase in your own thoughts, is a common feature of inner speech and was one of the factors in the original questionnaire. It is part of how thinking stays social. It is different from hearing voices that seem to come from outside your own mind, which is worth mentioning to a doctor.
Can I change my inner critic?
Often, with practice. Useful moves include noticing the exact words, answering them as you would for a friend, and switching to second person or your own name - 'you can do this' - which some experiments found helps people stay calmer under stress. The critic rarely disappears, but it can lose the final word.
Sources
- McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2011). The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults. Consciousness and Cognition. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2011.08.005
- Alderson-Day, B., Mitrenga, K., Wilkinson, S., McCarthy-Jones, S., & Fernyhough, C. (2018). The varieties of inner speech questionnaire - Revised (VISQ-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology. Consciousness and Cognition. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.001
- Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/bul0000021
An honest note The questions are Quinthea's own wording adapted from the Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire, so scores are not comparable with its published norms. The five factors were found mostly in English-speaking students and survey volunteers, and questionnaires capture what people believe about their inner speech, which can differ from what they notice moment to moment. This describes normal variation in thinking, not a diagnosis. If your inner critic is relentless and wearing you down, a psychologist can help.
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