Piece 2: Attention and the Texture of Thought
When I ask my students to pay attention, I usually have something particular in mind. I want them to stay with the text, listen to the person speaking, or consider a question before trying to answer it. But a student could be doing all of those things without experiencing the same kind of inner activity I associate with careful thinking. What does paying attention feel like for that student? How would I know?
The first piece in this series introduced research suggesting considerable differences in how people experience thought. Some report frequent inner speech. Others report much less. Researchers have also described experiences of definite thoughts without accompanying words, images, or other symbols. The interpretation of these reports remains under discussion, particularly claims that some people never experience inner speech. But the questions they raise are worth considering. How much do we assume about another person’s thinking because of what thinking feels like to us?