Auditory Imagery Contains More Than Audition

Contributions of nonauditory information to auditory imagery are examined. The spontaneous appearance of visual imagery concurrent with intentionally formed auditory imagery, and the similarities of spatial-temporal properties, mnemonic properties, and perceptual properties of auditory imagery and of visual imagery, is considered. A hypothesized distinction between an “inner voice” (which contains kinesthetic information related to speech articulation) and an “inner ear” (which does not) in auditory imagery is discussed, and evidence consistent (verbal transformation effect, judgments and comparisons of imaged content, clinical studies) and inconsistent (evidence against existence of a separate phonological loop, pre-articulatory auditory verbal imagery) with this distinction is considered. Possible relationships of auditory imagery to kinesthetic information from practice and performance of music and dance are considered, and the relationship of auditory imagery and synesthesia is briefly considered.