Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41696045›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in artificial intelligence2026

Private speech: similarities between a large language model and children.

Zhiyu Liang, Leon On Tay, Simon Dennis

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in artificial intelligence, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Zhiyu Liang *Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Leon On Tay *Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Simon DennisMelbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

This study investigates the capability of a non-reasoning large language model (GPT-4o) to generate private speech and evaluates its similarity to human private speech. We placed the model in a simulated solitary block-construction scenario via textual prompts, eliciting and classifying its self-directed utterances using an established semantic framework for categorizing private speech in children. The distribution of these categories was compared to two human benchmarks: a classic block-construction study and a more recent experiment employing a similar task setting. Analysis using scatter plots and Pearson correlation coefficients revealed a striking pattern: GPT-4o's semantic profile showed negligible similarity to the classic benchmark (

Indexed as

consciousnessdevelopmental psychologyinner speechlarge language modelprivate speech

Identifiers

PMID41696045
PMCPMC12894341

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.