Yes, but my comprehension and speed decreases. (Or it feels that way, I haven’t actually tested this. This also doesn’t feel like the right test to me—I can ‘squeeze’ counting in between reading, so it’s not necessarily the case that one isn’t blocking the other, it might just be that I’m alternating between them quickly.)
Edit: And I didn’t mean anything deep when I used the Chinese Room as an example! It was just meant to illustrate the enormous gulf in my mind between ‘comprehending through subvocalization’ versus ‘comprehending despite not subvocalizing.’ I tried several other metaphors before settling on that. I would be surprised to hear that there was a significant correlation between subvocalization and acceptance of the Chinese Room results and did not mean to imply that, though I suppose it is an interesting question regardless.
Maybe this metaphor makes my meaning clearer: asking me to read without subvocalizing would be like asking me to look at a painting without ever experiencing the qualia of seeing it. If I shut down that qualia somehow (and I don’t think could), then it’s still possible that some portions of my mind are becoming aware of what was on that picture and maybe you could discover that through some clever experiments. But that part of my brain that would have learned that doesn’t feel like it could be ‘me’ in the same way that it doesn’t feel like it could be ‘me’ that understands some read text without subvocalization.
I still have the qualia of reading, just not the qualia of sound (hence impossible to imagine that i am listening to it being read in an accent, while counting). It’s hard to describe. I can talk about an arbitrary subject while reading, and right now I am typing this message while reading what you wrote.
I have simultaneously the qualia of “hearing myself think” (or the qualia of talking if i count), and the qualia of reading, basically.
Yes, but my comprehension and speed decreases. (Or it feels that way, I haven’t actually tested this. This also doesn’t feel like the right test to me—I can ‘squeeze’ counting in between reading, so it’s not necessarily the case that one isn’t blocking the other, it might just be that I’m alternating between them quickly.)
Edit: And I didn’t mean anything deep when I used the Chinese Room as an example! It was just meant to illustrate the enormous gulf in my mind between ‘comprehending through subvocalization’ versus ‘comprehending despite not subvocalizing.’ I tried several other metaphors before settling on that. I would be surprised to hear that there was a significant correlation between subvocalization and acceptance of the Chinese Room results and did not mean to imply that, though I suppose it is an interesting question regardless.
Maybe this metaphor makes my meaning clearer: asking me to read without subvocalizing would be like asking me to look at a painting without ever experiencing the qualia of seeing it. If I shut down that qualia somehow (and I don’t think could), then it’s still possible that some portions of my mind are becoming aware of what was on that picture and maybe you could discover that through some clever experiments. But that part of my brain that would have learned that doesn’t feel like it could be ‘me’ in the same way that it doesn’t feel like it could be ‘me’ that understands some read text without subvocalization.
I still have the qualia of reading, just not the qualia of sound (hence impossible to imagine that i am listening to it being read in an accent, while counting). It’s hard to describe. I can talk about an arbitrary subject while reading, and right now I am typing this message while reading what you wrote.
I have simultaneously the qualia of “hearing myself think” (or the qualia of talking if i count), and the qualia of reading, basically.