Do you think with words?

That's awesome. And not a single intelligible word involved, I'm sure.

Well thats interesting. I think 28,29,30 come in pretty 'pure' and with little baggage.

But with plenty of other numbers, they seem to have words and junk attached to them when I think of them. If I think of the numeral that is my age, that number has all these words and ideas attached to it! I can't hardly see the number in my head! weird.

Or certain numbers like the day of my birthday in the month. That numeral is 18. It looks way different than 17 or 19 in my mind.

Do you have that? Think of the numeral of the day of the month of your birthday. Does that symbol look the same in your mind as the numerals on each side of it?

Sometimes, I briefly think in smells.

Freeduck,

Numbers always seemed to me to be in a dipping and rising pattern, like a wavy line, one behind the other into infinity.

Re: Do you think with words?


No.

Many parts of my thinking occur in parts of my brain over which I have minimal control. When I do "think in words" it is actually involving many different kinds of thoughts, much of which I am unaware.

I also frequently think in visual/auditory "flashes". What is quite bizarre is that my brain can deliver several seconds of "video" footage into my brain which displays instantly. The experience itself feels quite strange as suddenly I witness something.

Re: Do you think with words?


Dog,

Now that sounds cool. Can I look inside your mind and watch that video too? Sounds fun.

Every see "Being John Malkcovich" where you could be in someone else's being and inside their mind for a day or so? That was pretty hilarious. Highly recommended cult video, if you haven't seen it---I predict you'd love it.

One of the reasons I loath moving house is that I have to learn new reflexes to find the bathroom or plug in the coffee pot or manipulate the latch on the front door. Cooking an unfamiliar recipe in an unfamiliar kitchen is pure hell.

The sooner these daily adventures become routine and sub verbal, the happier I am.

I know what you mean. How about this one: finding the bathroom in the middle of the night, when you are half asleep, cant get to the light, you just want to get in there and get it done and get back to bed without stubbing your toe or crashing into something, cause then you'll actually be awake and won't sleep for 30 minutes or more...so you want to do it all in the dark almost out of memory....but it takes about 2 months in a new place for me to get to that zone...does anyone have this?

I've moved quite a bit just recently, and each time it takes me about 2 months to get into an adequate "sleeping walking in the dark to the bathroom" space.

But when you reach that zone, its a good thing. Nothing worse than having to go in the middle of the night, you get up, crash & trip into something, and there you are on laying on the floor toes half broken, in the dark half asleep having to go to bathroom, and you are awake now!

I ain't thinkin in words at that point...well maybe a few four letter ones, but thats about it.

There are different levels of thinking, as Codeborg pointed out in his inimitable way. I guess you mean when you're trying to work something out, so...

I'm a very spatial learner, and I'm really not very good at verbalizing things unless I take the time to translate my thoughts into words, so I think it's safe to say that a great deal of my focused thinking is not in words.

I'm not particular visual, either -- at least, not in the sense of seeing things in my minds eye. Rather, when I think about, say, the digestive system of a horse (as I'm doing right now, as I'm studying large animal anatomy), I find that I work out the spatial relationships with my body. In my mind's body, I bend down and twist to the left for the cecum, make the same movement but tipped up a bit for the right ventral colon, bring the left side of the body down for the sternal flexure, then bring the right side back for the left ventral colon, then bring the left side back to the pelvic flexure, then twist back along the left dorsal colon to the diaphragmatic flexure, then bring the right dorsal colon back up as a ball of energy toward by right ear, which then turns and lurches forward as the transverse colon, and slides slowly back toward the back of my head as the descending colon.

A lot of things are like this for me -- perhaps I've got a little Italian in me, with language living in my body.

When I was a kid, I used to lay in bed and hallucinate textures, ones that I knew the feel of but had never experienced. It still happens, but it's nowhere near as strong as it was when I was, say, six.

patio,

Very true. I guess it depends on what we are thinking about--as to whether we'd use words.

If I was trying to solve a complex calculus problem or something, I might use very few words. A lot of symbols.

I can see your point. If I was trying to learn anatomy, it seems like mental pictures would help a lot.

The subject we are thinking about influences the symbols, words, or whatever else we use to think about them.

Interesting. Should've been obvious I guess.

Thinking about thinking.

Thinking now I may have misinterpreted the question. (I only skimmed, I have to admit.)

I read it as, "Do you ONLY think with words?" It could well be, "Do you EVER think with words?"

I s'pose...

My computer skills are limited, but I have a number of actions that seem to be filed under "wave the mouse at the upper left of the screen". When I'm tired I click "File" for "Edit" or either of them for 'History" or any of the above for "Reply".....

No hovering, no hesitation. Fools have mice that rush in.