So how is it that YOU think?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So how is it that you yourself think?

I always found it rather odd, the way that I actually use my mind, and how it processes information. I’ve noticed I think in audio, when thinking, I use my voice, but in my head. Usually my thoughts are in audio, and it sounds exactly as the outside world does, that is, the quality of the sound I visualize in my head is quite good. When remembering songs, they play back like a recording, just like the original, except only I hear it.

Quite cool.

I highly doubt that I am very unique in this respect, but it is really cool when one actually dissects it.

When drawing, or remembering stuff that is visual in nature, of course, I think in pictures. How, I really have no idea. Because when I do it now, remembering what something looks like, It is somehow, I dunno, overlaid over what I am actually looking at, but the objects I see with my eyes sort of lose focus, or get dimmer somehow, and the image in my head is the one that takes focus over what I am actually seeing. It is really hard to describe in words how it works, but it is quite interesting.

Even memories are played back in that fashion, playing back in full video and sound, somehow in front of what I am actually seeing, or if it is a really strong memory, what I am actually seeing will kind of dissapear, like a dream, but minus the sleep. And yet, I will be able to continue on the task that I am doing without any real issues while doing that.

Almost like what I am actually doing was autonomous.

I can remember while in school, how I would play little games in my head to keep from getting bored. I would play out sort of imaginary scenarios throughout the day that would keep my occupied, or retrieve and fetch information that I was learning visually, with a computer interface of sorts. When I got my iPod, I thought it cool, because it scrolls through music in the same fashion I would scroll through information when trying to occupy myself. With different subjects and things scrolling vertically really rapidly. The mental interface I made had a pretty distinctive look too. It looked like an old computer terminal screen, green text on a black background.

Drawing is another odd thing, just how it works. When drawing, what I am actually doing, is just thinking with whatever tool it is that I happen to be using. The best way to explain it, is that I am tracing a mental image that I placed on the paper, and filling in the bits and pieces of it with my pencil or brush.

I do the same thing with colors in paintings. I know what color I need, and just think with the tools and create what I see in my head, without a real conscience effort to do so.

My writing is done in a different fashion though. It just kind of flows out, no real conscience effort in doing it, I just write whatever it is that I am writing as it streams forth. This was done in the same fashion, just as it sort of streams out. I never really know where it is that I am going with it, the page just kind of fills itself with text as I think.

Unfortunately I can’t type as quick as it comes out, so I am always a few words ahead of what it is that I am typing, making corrections and changes as I go.

I wouldn’t think myself odd though, just how my mind works. I suppose most people function in a similar manner, but then again, it is extremely difficult for me to imagine how else one could function. An interesting thought, is how I would think prior to learning to speak. Most all of my thinking is done in spoken word, so trying to imagine how one would think in a non-verbal fashion is kind of foreign to me. Now tasks can be accomplished without verbally thinking it out, but I can’t help but wonder how I would be able to figure things out completely visually.

I wonder if language wasn’t around, if I would just invent my own for my thoughts, or if I would just think in a completely different fashion altogether.

How do you think?

2

oh, and I am going to add this bit too, since this was a blog post of mine, and I went on further…

It is quite amazing the sheer amounts of processing power one has in their mind. Even simple tasks, are downright amazing when you think about the amount of power required to accomplish them. Just think about how much work is involved in your reading of this text. First you have a raw signal coming in from your eyes, that your brain has to decode, then you get into the way you recognize things. It takes this seemingly ramdom image presented to it, decides exactly what it is that is of value in the image presented to it, then has your eyes determine the distance and depth, and focus in directly on that point. Then it has to sit there, and decide what it is that you are looking at…

Computer,

Coke bottle

Candle,

Whatever it is that happens to be in the image. It corrects for different angles/lighting/etc and is able to recognize the objects.

Then it focuses in on the text that you are trying to read, and sharpens the image of the text you are viewing. Correcting for different fonts, colors, sizes, and everything else, it recognizes the letters and characters, then proceeds to interpret their meaning.

Which happens transparently, without even realizing all of this that is going on.

This is of course ignoring the fact that while doing this, you were hopefully still breathing, had a pulse, and were digesting todays dinner.

While hearing sounds.

And sound is just as amazing when you take apart how you even think about it!

3

Apparently, modro, I think like you.

I’ve never met anyone else who saw typed words in their head when they thought. In my head, though, it’s just plain black typewriter letters on white paper.

4

Well, I guess that means if that I am not sane for doing that, then I am at least not alone. :wink:

I’ve never really had any in depth conversations with people about what kinds of things they do inside their heads, so I am curious as to what other people do. I look forward to more responses.

When I was a kid, my imagination was really overactive. I’d be running one of the scenarios I used to do when I was bored, and it would always be really goofy off the wall stuff, like the entire neighborhood was some sort of big spaceship or something, and it would be undergoing some sort of major catastrophe.

I wouldn’t be hiding under my bed or anything, but I would be thinking about it as I walked to the store or something, visualizing everything as it happened, occupying myself in that manner.

I know that when I am working on something, or building some mechanical, I tend to visualize all of the components working together, spinning the gears, making everything work in my head. Works out well when I am actually building something too, as I mock it up in my head, and if it works there, it more than likely will work in reality too.

5

I think as a dialogue, only I’m on both sides of it…I think.

bamf

6

I do that, too. It’s not on paper, though, just a white background. And it’s not a typewriter font. Garamond, maybe. I think it’s because I do this that I’m such a gud speler.

I have conversations in my head all the time, both with myself and others.

7

Well, if this makes any sense… For me, it’s like taking a thousand pieces of a puzzle, and using trial and error to try and fit just one of them into the correct spot. At a very rapid pace. Almost like a Yes/No, if so THEN, if not DO, etc… Self medication is used to try and stop this shit.

8

For me it depends on what I’m thinking about and if I’m concentrating or not. If I’m concentrating, I usually only have one primary thing I’m thinking about, usually in a dialogue in my head, with two or three periphery ideas that pop in every once in a while as sort of idea flashes, but don’t interrupt my primary thought and conversation if I’m speaking to someone. If I’m not concentrating my thoughts, and I’m not observing something (when I observe, I go into story mode, like I’m telling myself a story of what’s happening outside my head), my brain is utter chaos, with flashes of ideas and images running through my head in a fairly inconstant stream. And sometimes I think in English, but other times I think in Spanish or another language that I learned really well while living and travelling in other countries. It depends on what I’m listening to at the time, if anything. It can also be very confusing to hear two languages that I understand all at the same time because it really fucks up my thinking. It’s like one half of my brain is trying to think in a different language from the other.

I don’t find it particularly hard to concentrate, but I have noticed that every once in a while when I’m exceptionally stressed or just have a lot of input coming in (lots of different stuff to do, lots of visual or audible “static” from television or other media), I do have to tell myself “Okay, ignore that and think on this one thing because it’s most important right now, then you can move on to think about those other things that aren’t so important at this moment.”

9

Mostly an inner dialogue, but not as if spoken or written, just experienced. Mostly occuring in the English Language, but also some concepts just seem to nebulously exist within thoughts when they are necessary.

10

Almost always as a conversation with someone else, either a friend in real life as I were explaining what was going on, or sometimes as if I were talking to someone on the SDMB!

11

One of my college Psych profs told us people think in 2 ways, about 2% of the population think in pictures, the rest, blah blah blah.
I think in pictures. He did explain how other people think but it made no sense to me, so I didn’t file it.
I’ve asked many people the OP’s exact question, but, it seems, the “not pictures” way, is harder to articulate.
He also said, the term “photographic memory” doesn’t mean that one remembers everything, it means that he or she remembers more things because…he or she thinks in pictures.
Do those of you who, mostly, “watch the show,” find that your memory is better than the people around you?
BTW,
If anyone insists on a cite for this, you’ll have to go search for it yourself.
College was almost 40 years ago, and, even though I have a “photographic memory,” I can’t recall what text we were studying. Heck, I can’t even remember to prof’s name! sigh.

12

I think in words, toward the audio but very frequently in text. Sometimes in abstractions, sometimes in patterns/relationships.

But, here’s one. After a day picking blackberries, I go to bed and shut my eyes, and I see detailed pictures of berry plants with berries, stems, leaves and all, as good as a photograph*. But I can’t tell if this is a snapshot of some specific part of a bush, or whether my brain is reconstructing everything it’s noticed about blackberries and projecting it. It includes everything–the colors of berries of various ripeness and also the corresponding amount of glossiness, just how thick the stems are and how they branch, the leaves both new, mature, and ratty, and so on. Amazing detail. These pictures come up involuntarily.

So who can tell if this is a memory or a construct? (Probably an unanswerable question.)

*on second thought, if I look around a photo I know it stays stable, but these mental images can’t be compared that way for sure.

13

I don’t think in pictures for the most part, just words I sort of hear. Not exactly out-loud words, either, but the silent-reading when you’re not trying to hear the difference between certain characters type. Far more often than mentally seeing what I’m thinking about, I think in dialogue, between me and whoever, like SolGrundy mentioned, but that doesn’t happen very often either. Even when I’m thinking of a story to write, I think of the words to describe the scenes, but don’t “see” them played out very often. It’s almost the same when I’m reading. (Which is why, I think, I’ve always been puzzled by the notion that reading things with good imagery helps kids use their imagination.)

If I want to picture something in my head while my eyes are open, it takes a lot of concentration, far more than auditory memory. Songs I “hear” more or less like they really sound, but picturing a painting I once saw is tough.

14

Only two percent? Really? Wow.

Yes, I do have a better memory than most people I know. I’m generally able to remember certain incidents in greater detail and it can be really frustrating when someone else misremembers how something happened or how something was worded. I know I’m right and they’re wrong, and on the rare occasions where evidence is somehow available, I’m almost invariably proven right, but usually it’s my memories against theirs.

15

Did he mention anything about a combination of audio & visual?

I wonder why it’s harder to articulate thinking in sound rather than in pictures? Perhaps because it’s not precisely sound (since it’s in your head), and it’s not always organized? Also, not everyone uses the same words to describe the same thing. My husband and I run into this communication problem sometimes. He’s very literal, I’m not. He knows the technical names for everything, and I don’t. So sometimes I’ll describe something to him that’s very similar to the technical definition, but because we use different words to describe things, we often feel like we’re talking about different stuff, only to find out that we’re talking about the same thing, just using different terms.

I’m going to have to ask him how he thinks. I’m betting it’ll be in pictures. He’s a pretty visual guy.

16

I’m definitely a combination, and what I’m doing somewhat defines what’s going on in my head. For example, right now I’m hearing the words that I’m typing, but if I’m speaking, sometimes I’ll see the words typed instead. I also have conversations in my head with other people, and I’ll both see and hear the words during these conversations.

I also tend to remember things better if I’ve read them than if I’ve heard them. I can remember what the page looked like that I was reading, and re-read it in my mind. When I’m re-listening to something, I don’t get the same perfect recall, since it’s far easier to mix up words that way. I do tend to remember details better than other people it seems, even when I’m relying on audio memory versus visual, but I find that it’s easier to organise pictures than sounds.

17

And I think you shouldn’t revive threads from a year and a half ago…

I think I’ll close this thread.