This is maybe only tangentially relevant to the linked study, but I've noticed I can read aloud from a book on autopilot while thinking about other things or even thinking back on past conversations. I could not do this a few years ago, but now it happens on its own. I wonder how that relates to attention and speech streams
Not reading out loud, but I've caught myself a few times on reading and not processing that, because I was thinking about something else. Like I still did the reading, but straight to /dev/null of my brain
I think everyone does this. It reminds me of a possible related phenomenon. The act of remembering what you do takes a few extra brain cells, to enable the “recording function “. If you are on complete autopilot, doing a routine task, you will often forget to turn on the recording function. Like the other day I tried to remember whther I had run the dryer and realized it had been completely optimized out of my memory.
I get that while driving home. I've driven half an hour and then realise I've been thinking about something else the entire time and cannot recall anything about the journey.
Welcome to a glimpse into the pathetic life [if one can even call it a life…] of a sad and wretched creature — the poor humans born with a deficiency of attention and an abundance of activity. This is a universal experience for the lost souls who stumble through life, burdened with a despicable and perverted simulacrum of a normal human’s brain, condemned with a condition more commonly known as…
The Dangerously Corrupted and Criminally Insane Mind of the ADHD Afflicted!
I experienced this too, when I started reading out loud more. At first, it was just that my eyes would scan ahead a bit from what I was saying, to help me get the right emphasis by knowing where the sentence was going. It felt like I had "handed off" saying the words out loud to a "subroutine", so my attention could be on what I was reading. Then that "readahead" extended to a whole sentence. And at that point it was like I was so far ahead of what I was saying that I had time to think about it a bit. And then at some point it was like the "reading the words" part got handed off to a "subroutine" too, so my attention could mostly stay on whatever I was thinking
This is something that has been studied and is apparently more common when reading out loud. I have this as well. I can read to my kids and at the same time plan the upcoming day. Pretty neat!
Sometimes I read a book out loud and think about something completely different.
I wonder if reading aloud might be like walking. I can be walking and speaking to a person at the same time.
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