Research suggests that people who talk to themselves aren't losing their minds, they're using the most effective cognitive tool the brain has for problem-solving - Silicon Canals

"Psychologists have studied self-directed speech since at least the 1930s, when the Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky proposed that children use "private speech" - talking out loud to themselves - as a scaffolding tool for thinking. His argument was elegant: language doesn't just express thought, it actively structures it. When kids mumble their way through a puzzle, they're not being childish. They're building cognitive architecture in real time."

"A 2012 study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology by psychologists Daniel Swigley and Gary Lupyan found that participants who said the name of an object out loud while searching for it found the object significantly faster than those who searched in silence. The effect wasn't subtle. Saying "banana" while scanning a grocery shelf made the visual system lock on more efficiently. Language, spoken aloud, was acting as a spotlight for attention."

Self-directed speech, long stigmatized as a sign of mental instability, is actually a powerful cognitive tool supported by decades of psychological research. Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky established in the 1930s that children use private speech to scaffold thinking and structure cognition. Contrary to assumptions that this behavior disappears in adulthood, research demonstrates adults continue benefiting from audible self-talk. A 2012 study found participants who spoke object names aloud while searching located them significantly faster than silent searchers, showing language acts as an attentional spotlight. Speaking engages the visual system more efficiently and activates cognitive processes that enhance performance across various tasks.

Read at Silicon Canals