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Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire

Assessing the quality of your inner speech.

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Do you engage in internal dialogue?

The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) is used to assess the quality of your inner speech. This internal dialogue is the inner voice or conversation you might experience in your mind.

The VISQ explores different aspects of inner speech, such as:

Dialogic: How much your inner speech feels like a back-and-forth conversation
Condensed: How abbreviated or shorthand-like your inner speech is
Other People: How often you experience other people’s voices in your inner speech
Evaluative/Critical: How much your inner speech involves self-evaluation or self-criticism
Positive/Regulatory: How much your inner speech is used for positive self-talk or self-regulation

Note: This survey is not a diagnostic tool. It is part of a research study exploring whether different varieties of inner speech might occur with imagination extremes, aphantasia and hyperphantasia.

Instructions: Please read each statement carefully and indicate how frequently you have experiences like this. There are no right or wrong answers, so please be as honest as possible in your responses.

How frequently do you have these experiences?

I think to myself in words using brief phrases and single words rather than full sentences*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

When I am talking to myself about things in my mind, it is like I am going back and forward asking myself questions and then answering them*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I hear the voice of another person in my head. For example, when I act in a certain way I hear my mother’s voice in my mind*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I experience the voices of other people asking me questions in my head*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I hear other people’s voices nagging me in my head*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

My thinking in words is more like a dialogue with myself, rather than my own thoughts in a monologue*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I think to myself in words using full sentences*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

My thinking to myself in words is like shorthand notes, rather than full, proper, grammatical English*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I think in inner speech about what I have done, and whether it was right or not*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

When I am talking to myself about things in my mind, it is like I am having a conversation with myself*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I talk silently in my head telling myself to do things*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I hear other people’s actual voices in my head, saying things that they have never said to me before*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I talk back and forward to myself in my mind about things*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

My thinking in words is shortened compared to my normal out-loud speech. For example, rather than saying to myself things like ‘I need to go to the store,’ I will just say ‘store’ to myself in my head*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

If I were to write down my thoughts on paper, they would read like a normal grammatical sentence*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I hear other people’s actual voices in my head, saying things that they actually once said to me*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I talk silently in my inner speech telling myself not to do things*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I evaluate my behaviour using my inner speech. For example, I say to myself, ‘that was good’ or ‘that was stupid’*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I talk to myself silently in an encouraging way*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

In my head I talk to myself a critical way*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

Certain words or sentences repeat in my head*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I think to myself in the second person, saying things like “You can do this” or “You forgot to do that”*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

When I think in words, it feels more like I am speaking than listening*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

When I think in words, it is like listening to a recording of my voice*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

My thinking in words is like a speech or a monologue, rather than a conversation*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I am in control of my inner speech*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I calm myself down by talking silently to myself*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

What I say in my inner speech makes me feel anxious*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I use metaphors and expressions in my inner speech, such as “This is such a nightmare”*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

My train of inner verbal thought can lead to me feeling very excited*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

My inner speech contributes to me feeling down and depressed*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

When angry, my inner speech can help calm me down*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

I am surprised by the content of my inner speech*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

There are certain words or phrases that I can’t get out of my head*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

When I think to myself in words about upsetting things, I can easily change topics in my mind and talk to myself about other things*

Never

Very rarely

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very often

All the time

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

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, 65, 48–58. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2018.07.001

Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire

Do you engage in internal dialogue?

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Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire

Do you engage in internal dialogue?

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