Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

In this exploratory study, we investigated how task-based inner speech initiation and suppression relate to broad psychological dimensions. A large online sample (N = 453) completed two one-minute inner speech tasks (initiation vs. suppression) and a battery of 11 questionnaires covering inner experience, personality, mental health, and self-regulation. Exploratory factor analysis identified seven latent factors, including Negative Mental Health and Inner Speech. The Negative Mental Health factor predicted higher reported inner speech frequency despite attempted suppression, while showing no association with attempted initiation. The questionnaire-derived Inner Speech factor predicted general inner speech propensity in the tasks. These findings suggest that impaired suppression, rather than elevated initiation, characterizes inner speech dysregulation in mental health risk, highlighting the importance of incorporating regulation and control dimensions into future inner speech measures.