Sokolov, A. (1972). Inner Speech and Thought
At a time when there is a recrudescence of interest in the higher cognitive functions of man and when"a great deal of research is being initiated on problems of perception, concept formation, thinking, and the like, it is very appropriate and timely that A. N. Sokolov's "Inner Speech and Thought" has appeared. It is especially important for non-Russian-reading scholars in several disciplines to have this book available in English translation.
The book should prove to be stimulating and valuable to psychologists and neurophysiologists interested in information processing and some of the basic steps in problem solving. The behaviorist and physiological psychologist will be interested in some of the efforts made to externalize thought processes and measure objectively the activity of articulatory structures and speech musculature during problem-solving and thinking exercises. Speech pathologists, neurologists, psycholinguists and others should find the effects of articulatory interference on mental activity and the effects of articulatory conditions on processes of perception, memorization, and thought of special interest.
Sokolov very ably reviews some of the early history of theories and concepts concerning the interrelation of speech and thought, going back to the early Greek philosophers and the concept of logos. He traces the course of thinking about ideas and their role in language and thought from Descartes, Leibnitz, and Locke and the British empiricists and associationists to Kiilpe's Wiirzburg school of imageless thought, and finally to Piaget and to modern Gestalt and behaviorist psychologists, including some of his own countrymen. Chapters II and III are very important in reviewing modern psychological and physiological concepts of inner speech in psychology and in setting the stage for the experimental investigations of Sokolov and his students which follow in the next several chapters.
Sokolov and his collaborators have employed the electromyogram and the electroencephalogram, as well as some other special mechanical-electrical techniques, to reveal the state of the speech organs and musculature and the brain electrical activity during thinking, both with and without verbalization and the use of language. Although seemingly simple, these experiments tackle a very complex subject with which psychologists, linguists, and others are only beginning to come to grips. Sokolov and his group have succeeded admirably in splitting the subject apart by driving in the wedges of objective measurement and unique experimental formulations.
Chapter IX dips into the neurology and neurophysiology of motor speech and its feedback mechanisms and the dynamic localization and organization of the cerebral mechanisms responsible for symbolic formulation of speech and thought. The bibliography brings together a considerable number of Russian publications on this subject, as well as some of the pertinent American and European literature. This book is a welcome addition to an important field.
Donald B. Lindsley
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