for pictures it usually goes straight to the concept for me but the internal narration might start when I start thinking about the apple.
ie. I see an apple. I start…
well when I’m, for example “saying” I could go for some apple pie right now, I don’t say things like sweet, hot, creamy ice cream texture, but I might ‘feel’ and ‘taste’ a ghost memory of apple pie WHILE I’m “saying” whatever it is my train of thought has lead me to.
for me it usually takes a concentrated effort not to “say” my thoughts for any extended period of time, and even then I usually fail. but I can still have other non verbal thoughts simultaneously while my verbal thoughts are going they’re just usually more of a background thing and less vivid. the only thing I think can compete with my verbal thoughts is my visual thoughts. although even they aren’t as “strong” as my verbal thoughts they are the most vivid when they are in the background.
for example. when I’m drawing or thinking of what to draw my mental image for something can be fairly clear while I’m verbal using my thoughts and I can “see” it fairly clearly while with my other thoughts they are almost entirely overpowered by my verbal thoughts
ugh 