How Do You Think?

[samsonite2100]

A recent conversation with my girlfriend got me thinking about this deceptively simple topic.

I always assumed that other people's minds worked the same way mine does--I almost exclusively think in terms of a sort of inner voice. Most of my reasoning, decision-making, and even emotional responses are essentially verbal.

I recently discussed this with my girlfriend, and she said she tends to think visually. That is, her thought process tends to involve a series of visualizations of different scenarios. When she's confronted with a tough decision, she kind of "pictures" her way through it, while I "talk" my way through it.

So, SMPers, how would you describe your thought process? Do you tend to think verbally, visually, or in some other way?

[luckyme]

[ QUOTE ]
That is, her thought process tends to involve a series of visualizations of different scenarios. When she's confronted with a tough decision, she kind of "pictures" her way through it, while I "talk" my way through it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely more like your gf, I have great difficulty lining up my thoughts so they can be expressed verbally. It's like trying to explain an interesting video of a basketball game. where would you start, which actions of the many interactions going on at once should occupy that moment of the talk.
By the time I say, "Jones is dribbling down the center, Hause is blocking" I can't say that Mirts is setting up the return because he's not doing that anymore, he's now blocking Tomkins and , cheeesh, now Jones isn't dribbling.
oh, fergit it. I'll My space it.

A shifting interactive web of inputs ranging from highly influential to mildly connected, with long tangential tails on many of them. Trying to make them linear is brutal.

luckyme

[johnnyrocket]

i go by inner feel, yea everyone thinks differently, thats what makes the world not as boring

[samsonite2100]

[ QUOTE ]
i go by inner feel, yea everyone thinks differently, thats what makes the world not as boring

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I'm glad everyone thinks in different ways, no doubt. When you say "inner feel," what exactly does that mean?

[PairTheBoard]

Most of the time I go through life as if in a dream. I get verbal when you guys force me to explain myself.

PairTheBoard

[Taraz]

Do you guys really think in one mode or another? I feel like it depends heavily on what I'm thinking about. I think visually in terms of sports, verbally in terms of logical arguments, etc.

I will say that my natural inner monologue is more of a verbal thing though.

[arahant]

That's funny...I recently discussed this with your gf myself. Tell you what...I just want to go to sleep after, but she will NOT shut her yapping until you humor her.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
A recent conversation with my girlfriend got me thinking about this deceptively simple topic.

I always assumed that other people's minds worked the same way mine does--I almost exclusively think in terms of a sort of inner voice. Most of my reasoning, decision-making, and even emotional responses are essentially verbal.

I recently discussed this with my girlfriend, and she said she tends to think visually. That is, her thought process tends to involve a series of visualizations of different scenarios. When she's confronted with a tough decision, she kind of "pictures" her way through it, while I "talk" my way through it.

So, SMPers, how would you describe your thought process? Do you tend to think verbally, visually, or in some other way?

[/ QUOTE ]

If I had to come up with some realistic metaphor to explain my thinking through problems, it would probably be that I arrange what I know on some sort of 3D grid, maybe like a globe, and navigate around what I know and how all the facts and ideas connect to each other. This is pretty much how it always seems to me, whenever I am trying to recall something or figure out some new problem that I know is only a few steps away. When I'm learning, I similarly hang items onto my globe, and try to connect them to as many things as possible.

So, when I go in to take an exam, for example, I read the problem, and immediately bring up the 4 or 5 items relevant to the problem and their specific geography on my globe. Then I literally turn the globe left and right, zoom in and out, and so on, trying to find or remember or figure out what I'm missing.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you guys really think in one mode or another? I feel like it depends heavily on what I'm thinking about. I think visually in terms of sports, verbally in terms of logical arguments, etc.

I will say that my natural inner monologue is more of a verbal thing though.

[/ QUOTE ]

I won't say that my thinking metaphor is universal, but it makes up the vast majority of the time I am trying to solve any intermediate-difficult problem. This holds true over different types of information, be it sports, logical arguments, medicine and so on.

[Pauwl]

I've always mostly thought as an inner dialogue, but the dialogue is faster than I can speak. Since I was younger, I always wondered how a deaf and blind person would think. Most people use a combination of visual and auditory thinking, but if both of these are unknown to you, how are your thoughts presented to you?