subvocalizing and talking to myself slows me down

[pat44]

I know I am not going to be a super-speed-solver. I'm happy just to complete the puzzles without hints and without errors.

But I really notice that I am speaking to myself while solving. As if I were reminding myself of how to solve puzzles, which steps to do, etc. It's not just sub-vocalizing (reading the clues with an inner voice), it's also somehow as if I am coaching myself. For example, "OK, so now we check to see both sides of this clue, we expect this...and here's an extra value" or whatever.

When the clues are simple ones, I go much faster because there are fewer syllables.

I'm guessing that speed-solvers don't have these habits!

[ella]

Hmm - interesting. I wonder about this a lot. I don't necessarily talk myself through exactly like you mention, but I do say the names (especially in the newer puzzles I'm noting - I actually often call them a slightly wrong name on purpose so I can remember.) I do find myself noting aloud things like " redwood fewer than spruce." I am going to investigate more, but I do know that I talk to myself more than I'm comfortable with, given my advanced age. I don't want to be talking to myself too much!

[JoshGrams]

Yeah, I definitely talk to myself. Abbreviating the part of the clue that I'm using, strategizing about what I might be looking for next, making a verbal note of same-step-distance clues because I still suck at those...

[tviolet]

I don't generally talk to myself on my fastest puzzles but if I get stuck, I find it helps to talk thru what I'm doing out loud. My tricks to get unstuck are 1) talk thru the clues, 2) kinda phantom use the bottom grids - visually picture where I would mark out squares but not actually cross them out, and 3) last resort: use the bottom rows.

[LLapp]

Pat44, thank you for this sanity check. I definitely talk to myself in my head (not out loud), and I also like to physically touch the screen next to each clue as I go through them, so I don't lose my place as I look back and forth between the clues and the grid. Between the inner talk and my finger on the screen, it feels like I'm holding my brain together as I move through the clues. No, I will never be a speed solver either.

[Ticonderoga]

Yeah, if you want the fastest possible times, then you're going to need to click faster than you can speak. But if that's not your goal, I think vocalisation is totally normal and can be very helpful.

[JoshGrams]

I don't think that's true for me: I'm not FAST fast but I've gotten 30s times on 3x4 easy and a few 3x4 moderate puzzles and AFAICS it's always the "finding the next deduction" part that slows me down and not the "thinking out loud" part...

[ella]

Surely speaking uses some time. Anyone who has ever read rather than listened to something knows that we can somehow read, understand and integrate faster (at least in our native languages) than we can speak. For me the speaking aloud part definitely has more to do with the remembering part. I find (and I figured out years ago, before the ubiquitousness of easy recording devices) that I remembered better if I read my notes for exams aloud rather than just reading them silently. I am too old to have used those "what kind of learner are you?" tools, but I would bet I'm an auditory learner. Of course, that means other people will have better results with different "crutches." So despite feeling slightly insane at times, I speak aloud a lot when solving. I'm not really trying to solve fast, but because I don't like the way the "trophy" graphic looks, I take care not to get top three every month because I like the way my page looks with fake ribbons rather than fake trophies. That probably says more about how much time I have on my hands than my speed at solving puzzles though.