Charles Fernyhough
Biographic Data
| ID | 1464716 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Charles Fernyhough |
| GIVEN NAMES | Charles |
| FAMILY NAME | Fernyhough |
| SIGNATURE | FERNYHOUGH C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3822-710X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 81 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Explaining the relation between early mind-mindedness and children’s mentalizing abilities: The development of an observational preschool assessment
The aim of this research was to develop a new observation-based measure for assessing caregivers' mind-mindedness in the preschool years and investigate whether this measure could explain the link between mothers' early appropriate mind-related comments and children's later mentalizing abilities. The new measure was developed using a sample of mothers and 44-month-olds ( N = 171), characterizing mind-mindedness in terms of (a) solicited child inv…
Voices in Psychosis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Mind‐mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind‐mindedness a relational construct
Mind‐mindedness is a measure of the tendency to represent significant others in internal state terms and is central to supportive parent–infant relationships. The two studies reported here explored whether mind‐mindedness generalizes to representations of unknown individuals, using a novel task that assessed individual differences in adults’ tendency to interpret others’ behavior with reference to their internal states: the Unknown Mother–Infant …
‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices
Writers often report vivid experiences of hearing characters talking to them, talking back to them, and exhibiting independence and autonomy. However, systematic empirical studies of this phenomenon are almost non-existent, and as a result little is known about its cause, extent, or phenomenology. Here we present the results of a survey of professional writers (n = 181) run in collaboration with the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Particip…
Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms: A new phenomenological survey
Musical hallucinations (MH) account for a significant proportion of auditory hallucinations, but there is a relative lack of research into their phenomenology. In contrast, much research has focused on other forms of internally generated musical experience, such as earworms (involuntary and repetitive inner music), showing that they can vary in perceived control, repetitiveness, and in their effect on mood. We conducted a large online survey (N =…
The varieties of inner speech questionnaire – Revised (Visq-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology
Inner speech is a common experience for many but hard to measure empirically. The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) has been used to link everyday phenomenology of inner speech - such as inner dialogue - to various psychopathological traits. However, positive and supportive aspects of inner speech have not always been captured. This study presents a revised version of the scale - the VISQ-R - based on factor analyses in two large sam…
Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences
Readers often describe vivid experiences of voices and characters in a manner that has been likened to hallucination. Little is known, however, of how common such experiences are, nor the individual differences they may reflect. Here we present the results of a 2014 survey conducted in collaboration with a national UK newspaper and an international book festival. Participants (n=1566) completed measures of reading imagery, inner speech, and hallu…
Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices
This article draws on research from the major collaborative research project Hearing the Voice , based at Durham University, to reconsider and foreground Margery Kempe's inner voices, and hence, to return to an emphasis on inner, spiritual experience as shaping her Book . The richness of Margery's multi-sensory experience, and the care with which it is depicted, is illuminated by and illuminates the experience of contemporary voice-hearers, offer…
Development of restricted and repetitive behaviors from 15 to 77 months: Stability of two distinct subtypes
A community sample of 192 parents reported on their children's restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) at mean ages 15 months (N = 138), 26 months (N = 191), and 77 months (N = 125) using the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire-2 (RBQ-2). Consistent with previous factor analytic research, 2 factors were found at each age: 1 comprising repetitive sensory and motor behaviors (RSM), and the other comprising insistence on sameness behaviors includin…
Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology
Inner speech-also known as covert speech or verbal thinking-has been implicated in theories of cognitive development, speech monitoring, executive function, and psychopathology. Despite a growing body of knowledge on its phenomenology, development, and function, approaches to the scientific study of inner speech have remained diffuse and largely unintegrated. This review examines prominent theoretical approaches to inner speech and methodological…
More than one voice: Investigating the phenomenological properties of inner speech requires a variety of methods
Shot through with voices: Dissociation mediates the relationship between varieties of inner speech and auditory hallucination proneness
Inner speech is a commonly experienced but poorly understood phenomenon. The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ; McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough, 2011) assesses four characteristics of inner speech: dialogicality, evaluative/motivational content, condensation, and the presence of other people. Prior findings have linked anxiety and proneness to auditory hallucinations (AH) to these types of inner speech. This study extends that work by exa…
Mind‐Mindedness as a Multidimensional Construct: Appropriate and Nonattuned Mind‐Related Comments Independently Predict Infant–Mother Attachment in a Socially Diverse Sample
In a socially diverse sample of 206 infant–mother pairs, we investigated predictors of infants’ attachment security at 15 months, with a particular emphasis on mothers’ tendency to comment appropriately or in a non‐attuned manner on their 8‐month‐olds’ internal states (so‐called mind‐mindedness). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that higher scores for appropriate mind‐related comments and lower scores for non‐attuned mind‐related c…
Self-regulatory private speech relates to children's recall and organization of autobiographical memories
The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults
Mother- Versus Infant-Centered Correlates of Maternal Mind-Mindedness in the First Year of Life: Maternal Mind-Mindedness
We investigated whether maternal mind-mindedness in infant-mother interaction related to aspects of obstetric history and infant temperament. Study 1, conducted with a socially diverse sample of 206 eight-month-old infants and their mothers, focused on links between maternal mind-mindedness and (i) planned conception, (ii) perception of pregnancy, and (iii) recollections of first contact with the child. The two indices of mind-mindedness (appropr…
Individual Differences in Infants’ Joint Attention Behaviors With Mother and a New Social Partner: Individual Differences in Joint Attention
Relations between infant-mother attachment security at 15 months and infants' (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants' tendency to respond to an experimenter's bids for joint attention. Higher levels of initiating joint attention with an experimenter at 15…
A new spin on the Wheel of Fortune: Priming of action-authorship judgements and relation to psychosis-like experiences
Getting Vygotskian about theory of mind: Mediation, dialogue, and the development of social understanding
Talking back to the spirits: The voices and visions of Emanuel Swedenborg
The voices and visions experienced by Emanuel Swedenborg remain a topic of much debate. The present article offers a reconsideration of these experiences in relation to changes in psychiatric practice. First, the phenomenology of Swedenborg's experiences is reviewed through an examination of his writings. The varying conceptualizations of these experiences by Swedenborg and his contemporaries, and by psychiatrists of later generations, are examin…
Thought as action: Inner speech, self-monitoring, and auditory verbal hallucinations
Sociocultural influences on the development of verbal mediation: Private speech and phonological recoding in Saudi Arabian and British samples
Cross-national stability in private speech (PS) and short-term memory was investigated in Saudi Arabian (n = 63) and British (n = 58) 4- to 8-year-olds. Assumed differences in child-adult interaction between the 2 nationality groups led to predictions of Gender x Nationality interactions in the development of verbal mediation. British boys used more self-regulatory PS than British girls, whereas there was no such difference for the Saudi group. W…
Pathways to Understanding Mind: Construct Validity and Predictive Validity of Maternal Mind-Mindedness
The construct validity of maternal mind-mindedness (MM) was investigated in the context of its relations with children's later understanding of mind. MM measures were obtained from infant–mother (N=52) interactions at 6 months, and from maternal interviews at 48 months. Children's understanding of mind was assessed using theory of mind (ToM) tasks at 45 and 48 months, and a stream of consciousness (SoC) task at 55 months. One of the early MM meas…
Maternal Mind–Mindedness and Attachment Security as Predictors of Theory of Mind Understanding
This study investigated relations between social interaction during infancy and children's subsequent theory of mind (ToM). Infant–mother pairs (N= 57) were observed in a free–play context at 6 months. Interactions were coded for (a) mothers’ use of mental state language that commented appropriately on the infants’ mental states, and (b) mothers’ use of mental state language that did not appropriately reflect their infants’ minds. A third variabl…
Rethinking Maternal Sensitivity: Mothers’ Comments on Infants’ Mental Processes Predict Security of Attachment at 12 Months
This study investigated predictors of attachment security in a play context using a sample of 71 mothers and their 6‐month‐old infants. We sought to rethink the concept of maternal sensitivity by focusing on mothers’ ability accurately to read the mental states governing infant behaviour. Five categories were devised to assess this ability, four of which were dependent on maternal responses to infant behaviours, such as object‐directed activity. …
Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology
Inner speech-also known as covert speech or verbal thinking-has been implicated in theories of cognitive development, speech monitoring, executive function, and psychopathology. Despite a growing body of knowledge on its phenomenology, development, and function, approaches to the scientific study of inner speech have remained diffuse and largely unintegrated. This review examines prominent theoretical approaches to inner speech and methodological…
Security of Attachment as a Predictor of Symbolic and Mentalising Abilities: A Longitudinal Study
The development of symbolic and mentalising abilities was examined in 33 children whose security of attachment had been assessed in infancy. It was found that securely attached children: (i) were better able to incorporate an experimenter’s play suggestions into their sequences of symbolic play at 31 months; and (ii) performed better on a version of Wimmer and Perner’s (1983) unexpected transfer task at age 4. There was also evidence of superior …
Sociocultural influences on the development of verbal mediation: Private speech and phonological recoding in Saudi Arabian and British samples
Cross-national stability in private speech (PS) and short-term memory was investigated in Saudi Arabian (n = 63) and British (n = 58) 4- to 8-year-olds. Assumed differences in child-adult interaction between the 2 nationality groups led to predictions of Gender x Nationality interactions in the development of verbal mediation. British boys used more self-regulatory PS than British girls, whereas there was no such difference for the Saudi group. W…
Mind‐mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind‐mindedness a relational construct
Mind‐mindedness is a measure of the tendency to represent significant others in internal state terms and is central to supportive parent–infant relationships. The two studies reported here explored whether mind‐mindedness generalizes to representations of unknown individuals, using a novel task that assessed individual differences in adults’ tendency to interpret others’ behavior with reference to their internal states: the Unknown Mother–Infant …
Explaining the relation between early mind-mindedness and children’s mentalizing abilities: The development of an observational preschool assessment
The aim of this research was to develop a new observation-based measure for assessing caregivers' mind-mindedness in the preschool years and investigate whether this measure could explain the link between mothers' early appropriate mind-related comments and children's later mentalizing abilities. The new measure was developed using a sample of mothers and 44-month-olds ( N = 171), characterizing mind-mindedness in terms of (a) solicited child inv…
Security of Attachment as a Predictor of Symbolic and Mentalising Abilities: A Longitudinal Study
The development of symbolic and mentalising abilities was examined in 33 children whose security of attachment had been assessed in infancy. It was found that securely attached children: (i) were better able to incorporate an experimenter’s play suggestions into their sequences of symbolic play at 31 months; and (ii) performed better on a version of Wimmer and Perner’s (1983) unexpected transfer task at age 4. There was also evidence of superior …
Rethinking Maternal Sensitivity: Mothers’ Comments on Infants’ Mental Processes Predict Security of Attachment at 12 Months
This study investigated predictors of attachment security in a play context using a sample of 71 mothers and their 6‐month‐old infants. We sought to rethink the concept of maternal sensitivity by focusing on mothers’ ability accurately to read the mental states governing infant behaviour. Five categories were devised to assess this ability, four of which were dependent on maternal responses to infant behaviours, such as object‐directed activity. …
Maternal Mind–Mindedness and Attachment Security as Predictors of Theory of Mind Understanding
This study investigated relations between social interaction during infancy and children's subsequent theory of mind (ToM). Infant–mother pairs (N= 57) were observed in a free–play context at 6 months. Interactions were coded for (a) mothers’ use of mental state language that commented appropriately on the infants’ mental states, and (b) mothers’ use of mental state language that did not appropriately reflect their infants’ minds. A third variabl…
Pathways to Understanding Mind: Construct Validity and Predictive Validity of Maternal Mind-Mindedness
The construct validity of maternal mind-mindedness (MM) was investigated in the context of its relations with children's later understanding of mind. MM measures were obtained from infant–mother (N=52) interactions at 6 months, and from maternal interviews at 48 months. Children's understanding of mind was assessed using theory of mind (ToM) tasks at 45 and 48 months, and a stream of consciousness (SoC) task at 55 months. One of the early MM meas…
Sociocultural influences on the development of verbal mediation: Private speech and phonological recoding in Saudi Arabian and British samples
Cross-national stability in private speech (PS) and short-term memory was investigated in Saudi Arabian (n = 63) and British (n = 58) 4- to 8-year-olds. Assumed differences in child-adult interaction between the 2 nationality groups led to predictions of Gender x Nationality interactions in the development of verbal mediation. British boys used more self-regulatory PS than British girls, whereas there was no such difference for the Saudi group. W…
Thought as action: Inner speech, self-monitoring, and auditory verbal hallucinations
A new spin on the Wheel of Fortune: Priming of action-authorship judgements and relation to psychosis-like experiences
Getting Vygotskian about theory of mind: Mediation, dialogue, and the development of social understanding
Talking back to the spirits: The voices and visions of Emanuel Swedenborg
The voices and visions experienced by Emanuel Swedenborg remain a topic of much debate. The present article offers a reconsideration of these experiences in relation to changes in psychiatric practice. First, the phenomenology of Swedenborg's experiences is reviewed through an examination of his writings. The varying conceptualizations of these experiences by Swedenborg and his contemporaries, and by psychiatrists of later generations, are examin…
The varieties of inner speech: Links between quality of inner speech and psychopathological variables in a sample of young adults
Mother- Versus Infant-Centered Correlates of Maternal Mind-Mindedness in the First Year of Life: Maternal Mind-Mindedness
We investigated whether maternal mind-mindedness in infant-mother interaction related to aspects of obstetric history and infant temperament. Study 1, conducted with a socially diverse sample of 206 eight-month-old infants and their mothers, focused on links between maternal mind-mindedness and (i) planned conception, (ii) perception of pregnancy, and (iii) recollections of first contact with the child. The two indices of mind-mindedness (appropr…
Individual Differences in Infants’ Joint Attention Behaviors With Mother and a New Social Partner: Individual Differences in Joint Attention
Relations between infant-mother attachment security at 15 months and infants' (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants' tendency to respond to an experimenter's bids for joint attention. Higher levels of initiating joint attention with an experimenter at 15…
Mind‐Mindedness as a Multidimensional Construct: Appropriate and Nonattuned Mind‐Related Comments Independently Predict Infant–Mother Attachment in a Socially Diverse Sample
In a socially diverse sample of 206 infant–mother pairs, we investigated predictors of infants’ attachment security at 15 months, with a particular emphasis on mothers’ tendency to comment appropriately or in a non‐attuned manner on their 8‐month‐olds’ internal states (so‐called mind‐mindedness). Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that higher scores for appropriate mind‐related comments and lower scores for non‐attuned mind‐related c…
Self-regulatory private speech relates to children's recall and organization of autobiographical memories
More than one voice: Investigating the phenomenological properties of inner speech requires a variety of methods
Shot through with voices: Dissociation mediates the relationship between varieties of inner speech and auditory hallucination proneness
Inner speech is a commonly experienced but poorly understood phenomenon. The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ; McCarthy-Jones & Fernyhough, 2011) assesses four characteristics of inner speech: dialogicality, evaluative/motivational content, condensation, and the presence of other people. Prior findings have linked anxiety and proneness to auditory hallucinations (AH) to these types of inner speech. This study extends that work by exa…
Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology
Inner speech-also known as covert speech or verbal thinking-has been implicated in theories of cognitive development, speech monitoring, executive function, and psychopathology. Despite a growing body of knowledge on its phenomenology, development, and function, approaches to the scientific study of inner speech have remained diffuse and largely unintegrated. This review examines prominent theoretical approaches to inner speech and methodological…
Uncharted features and dynamics of reading: Voices, characters, and crossing of experiences
Readers often describe vivid experiences of voices and characters in a manner that has been likened to hallucination. Little is known, however, of how common such experiences are, nor the individual differences they may reflect. Here we present the results of a 2014 survey conducted in collaboration with a national UK newspaper and an international book festival. Participants (n=1566) completed measures of reading imagery, inner speech, and hallu…
Reading Margery Kempe’s inner voices
This article draws on research from the major collaborative research project Hearing the Voice , based at Durham University, to reconsider and foreground Margery Kempe's inner voices, and hence, to return to an emphasis on inner, spiritual experience as shaping her Book . The richness of Margery's multi-sensory experience, and the care with which it is depicted, is illuminated by and illuminates the experience of contemporary voice-hearers, offer…
Development of restricted and repetitive behaviors from 15 to 77 months: Stability of two distinct subtypes
A community sample of 192 parents reported on their children's restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) at mean ages 15 months (N = 138), 26 months (N = 191), and 77 months (N = 125) using the Repetitive Behavior Questionnaire-2 (RBQ-2). Consistent with previous factor analytic research, 2 factors were found at each age: 1 comprising repetitive sensory and motor behaviors (RSM), and the other comprising insistence on sameness behaviors includin…
Musical hallucinations, musical imagery, and earworms: A new phenomenological survey
Musical hallucinations (MH) account for a significant proportion of auditory hallucinations, but there is a relative lack of research into their phenomenology. In contrast, much research has focused on other forms of internally generated musical experience, such as earworms (involuntary and repetitive inner music), showing that they can vary in perceived control, repetitiveness, and in their effect on mood. We conducted a large online survey (N =…
The varieties of inner speech questionnaire – Revised (Visq-R): Replicating and refining links between inner speech and psychopathology
Inner speech is a common experience for many but hard to measure empirically. The Varieties of Inner Speech Questionnaire (VISQ) has been used to link everyday phenomenology of inner speech - such as inner dialogue - to various psychopathological traits. However, positive and supportive aspects of inner speech have not always been captured. This study presents a revised version of the scale - the VISQ-R - based on factor analyses in two large sam…
‘I’ve learned I need to treat my characters like people’: Varieties of agency and interaction in Writers’ experiences of their Characters’ Voices
Writers often report vivid experiences of hearing characters talking to them, talking back to them, and exhibiting independence and autonomy. However, systematic empirical studies of this phenomenon are almost non-existent, and as a result little is known about its cause, extent, or phenomenology. Here we present the results of a survey of professional writers (n = 181) run in collaboration with the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Particip…
Mind‐mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind‐mindedness a relational construct
Mind‐mindedness is a measure of the tendency to represent significant others in internal state terms and is central to supportive parent–infant relationships. The two studies reported here explored whether mind‐mindedness generalizes to representations of unknown individuals, using a novel task that assessed individual differences in adults’ tendency to interpret others’ behavior with reference to their internal states: the Unknown Mother–Infant …
Explaining the relation between early mind-mindedness and children’s mentalizing abilities: The development of an observational preschool assessment
The aim of this research was to develop a new observation-based measure for assessing caregivers' mind-mindedness in the preschool years and investigate whether this measure could explain the link between mothers' early appropriate mind-related comments and children's later mentalizing abilities. The new measure was developed using a sample of mothers and 44-month-olds ( N = 171), characterizing mind-mindedness in terms of (a) solicited child inv…
Psychology (26 works) · Developmental psychology (18 works) · Cognition (15 works) · Cognitive psychology (15 works) · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (7 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (7 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (6 works) · Neuroscience (6 works)