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> Do you first feel a thought inside you, and only after that go searching for the right word to wrap around it

There are enough neuroscience experiments demonstrating how we create post hoc explanations of our actions that I wouldn't trust this intuition prima facie.

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I've noticed that more and more of my mental attention while speaking is observing the words that come out of my mouth rather than 'generating' them. I split time between rough pathfinding in my mind to fit a conceptual framework then kind of sit and listen as it comes out to think about how they sound. If I had to guess this happens on a 1-2 sentence chunk at a time.

The fact that we're even capable of doing a study like that and introspecting is probably a good indication of our cognitive abilities as humans

Consider someone designing a skyscraper. They're thinking about material strengths and such while they draft it, they aren't just rationalizing their choice later.

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