Inner reading voice during dialogue comprehension in narrative and immersion in the narrative reading

Abstract

　Inner speech during reading is referred to as Inner Reading Voice (IRV). We investigated the frequency of IRV occurrence and the quality of the voice during narrative reading. Additionally, we examined their correlation to immersion characteristics during narrative comprehension. A survey was conducted with 499 native Japanese speakers. The IRV questionnaire assessed IRV frequency and auditory qualities. Additionally, participants' proneness to narrative story immersion was measured. The findings from IRV questionnaire indicated suggest that IRV is frequently generated when reading dialogue sentences in narrative stories. However, not all sentences are necessarily subvocalized. Some participants answered they use IRV very occasionally. Furthermore, dialogue sentences in narrative stories are often subvocalized with multiple distinct IRVs. Individual differences were observed in both IRV frequency and voice quality, consistent with previous studies. In terms of the relationship with readers’ immersion characteristics, individuals who engage in frequent IRV scored higher on measures of “immersion in the narrative world” than those who engage in less-frequent IRV. Individuals who employ multiple distinct voices during IRV also demonstrated higher scores on the immersion measures than those who employ one type of voices. These findings suggest a connection between rich IRV and the experience of empathy and image formation during narrative comprehension.