How do you think?

A pretty interesting area that hasn't been closely studied: what is your thinking like?

I was surprised to learn that not everybody's thoughts are a constant stream of "speech." "What should I have for lunch? I could go to Spring Mountain, but it's a little out of the way. I could skip lunch and just eat when I get home. Then I could get high and watch TV while I eat. Oh crap, I have to go to the bank. What are their hours on Saturday?"

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/pristine-inner-experience/201111/thinking-without-words

I only have "inner seeing" which I take to mean visualization of images, occasionally.

I can "hear" music in my head, which many people can't. I'd say this is second place for me. I "hear" music throughout the day. Perhaps this is why I find the piped in music at casinos and retail stores so disruptive and unpleasant when I don't like the music.

I had a friend who said that his thoughts were like comic books. A mixture of images and words.

It seems some people's thinking is a lot less explicit. This is called "unsymbolized thinking."

"Unsymbolized thinking is the experience of an explicit, differentiated thought that does not include the experience of words, images, or any other symbols. For example, if you had been beeped a moment ago, you might have experienced an unsymbolized thought which, if expressed in words, might have been something like I wonder what Feature 5 is. But if this was an unsymbolized thought, there would have been no experienced words--no experience of the word "wonder" or of "Feature 5." There would have been no experienced images--no seeing of a beeper or of anything else. There would have been no experienced symbols of any kind, and yet you would have directly apprehended ("before the footlights of your consciousness") yourself as thinking that exact thought."

I guess it's mostly a constant monologue. I hear music but only when I have a song stuck in my head. I see pictures but usually only when I'm doing/thinking something that is highly visual.

When I'm remembering, I see pictures and hear sound. When I hear sound or smell things that trigger memories, I get series of pictures, often very complete movies or still shots of moments, that include associative emotions both positive and negative.

When I'm learning something like spelling or definitions of new words, I'm taking a picture of that word and hearing it in my head at the same time. Same in memorizing facts, faces, names. I see them as a picture of print, or labeled pictures.

When I'm doing math or thinking creatively or singing, the numbers or words weave around each other in my head. Not so much pictograms as various wisps of thoughts or phrases intertwined. Sometimes some of the factual or text stuff becomes pertinent and solidifies for a flash second, then gets integrated into the weaving.

When I'm planning, I'm constantly making lists and checking thEm off mentally, and they swirl as loose ends under other functions. That's driving, cleaning, cooking, running errands, packing for a trip, etc.

My short-term memory is a tape recorder of my words, actions and thoughts that's in constant delayed playback, lag maybe 10-30 seconds. I have to grab input as it comes out of that stream and file it as above, or it's gone.

Those last 2 are especially in use while separating traffic.

I experienced telepathy once or twice. But of course, where's the proof? I knew it happened anyway.

Quote: MDawg

I experienced telepathy once or twice. But of course, where's the proof? I knew it happened anyway.

Just make sure it happens at the Bacc tables next time!

Unsymbolized.

This is a strange subject, kind of hard to discuss in words. I'll think in words, but remember in words, pictures and video if remembering an event. Sometimes it feels like a flood, suddenly this moment is poured into my head, I stare at the air, just see and hear it. I notice my eyes moving, I'll transpose the images over what is really in front of me. So I'll look to the left, see a picture on the wall, I'll move my eyes to the right, and as I do, I'll see what I was remembering. Hard to explain.


This is what I was talking about long ago about picturing yourself counting visualizing numbers, but not mentally thinking of saying the words for the numbers as you go. So imagine a picture of a 1, then replace it with a 2, then a 3, but not mentally think to say the word 1, 2 or 3. I couldn't do it.

On the same point, I remember reading people that grew up watching black and white tv as a kid, dream in black and white. I didn't, I dream in color. Perhaps the fogies here can testify.

I have a pornographic mind

Binary. Sometimes I think I'm insane. Often - quite often - I don't.

Hard to make out the words over the volume of the ringing.