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Do you think mostly in words or something else

Do you think mostly in words or not?

  • Think in words

    Votes: 48 43.6%
  • Not think in words (I'm not sure of all the different ways people would think in.)

    Votes: 62 56.4%

  • Total voters
    110

arcticangel02

To the top of the world
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Messages
892
MBTI Type
eNFP
Hmm. This is a very interesting thread.

I don't think in words at all. Not in a voice in my head, or seeing the words written out, nothing like that. The only time words come into it is when I deliberately generate them for an imagined dialogue, or something.

My thoughts, well, when I'm really, actively thinking about something, I suppose they're something like 'videos' (I'll play scenarios through my mind) or 'images' (ideas about what something will or does look like, though they're more 3d in that way...). Feelings and sensation may enter into it a little bit, but a lot of my serious thought is future and idea-based, thus neutral and detatched from any sort of here-and-now reality.

But regular thought... well, the vast majority of the time they're just 'ideas', they're 'thoughts', by no means as constrained as a simple film of images or something. They flit and mutate and run amok. I can barely keep track of them. ;) There's not really any way to describe them. They grab ahold of stuff that I see or hear or even think and explode it into a thousand off-shoots of thought, a few of which will be pursued and exploded and so on. :p

So, when I want to put words to something, I often end up speaking in a stream-of-consciousness way, exploring how to put the idea into language through doing so. It just comes out and the words are there to catch it and communicate it. They usually do okay - I'll work around it if there are any difficulties.

The main issue I have when putting ideas into words are when it's more of an opinion, or my assessment of a situation which could either be touchy or something - then my words get stuck. I sometimes really struggle to put across what I mean together with the intention I have. It's easy in my head. ;)

It's funny how a word as simple as 'thought' or 'idea' makes perfect sense to the user, and when we use it, we mean a concept that is really quite complex and difficult to pin down. But there it is, contained in one little word. We tend to forget that our inherant perception of an 'idea' could well be totally and completely alien to the person next to us.
 

will5250

New member
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Messages
83
MBTI Type
INFP
Hi. This is my first post here. Some folks here have encountered me before on INFPgc, but most of you I have never met before. It's interesting to read all of these thoughts and see the type in most cases sitting beside the thought. I like to collect these thoughts and observations and form them into patterns that can used to recognize attributes of different kinds of people, to make the information available to my intuition. Or at least that's what I think it's good for.

Thinking for me is a mix of in words, except the words are remembered as sounds, and of mental processing that thinks in images. There is much inner dialog between the two. One will ask a question in words like "Did you turn off the stove?" and the other responds with images that demonstrate the action, or sometimes the latter asks with image and the former replies in words. The two seem to me to fit the definitions of right brain vs. left brain. One thinks in words, and I often speak those words out loud to myself, and it uses logic, and has learned to translate my thoughts into sequential form, and does ok handling detail much of the time, though my short term memory being rather flakey frustrates it's effors. The other thinks in image, and symbol, and is holistic, random and highly intuitive. The later runs the show, but the former contributes a lot.

I too make great use of feeling tones, but for me they function like labels; like nonverbal nomenclature. Most of my memories have feeling tone labels that I feel when I recall the memory. In my memories from before I learned to talk, I remember many items having these labels. They aren't something that I decide, they just are, or something subconscious determines them. People have feeling tone labels. I usually call this their vibe, but feeling tone label is a good way to describe how I experience a person's vibe. Every person has his/her own unique feel. I feel it when I read someone's words, or when I spend time with them IRL. I don't know how my mind comes up with the feeling tone label. It's seems as if my mind is getting it some how from the person, or from the feel of their inner spirit. I don't know but it's dependable, and after I spend time with someone, or have read several of their posts, I get to where I recognize people by their feeling tone label.

I'm wondering whether to take this a step further, but it relates I think. I'm also empathic. If a friend of mine is upset with me, I often feel it in them. I feel the emotion they have toward me, and also their feeling tone label. I'll know who it is and what they feel, if it's someone I know and love. And the person doesn't have to be in the room, or even in the country for me to experience this. Maybe that's revealing too much, but it's part of what it's like inside my head, or how I experience thinking, sort of.
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
8,828
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
4w5
People have feeling tone labels. I usually call this their vibe, but feeling tone label is a good way to describe how I experience a person's vibe. Every person has his/her own unique feel. I feel it when I read someone's words, or when I spend time with them IRL. I don't know how my mind comes up with the feeling tone label. It's seems as if my mind is getting it some how from the person, or from the feel of their inner spirit. I don't know but it's dependable, and after I spend time with someone, or have read several of their posts, I get to where I recognize people by their feeling tone label.

I'm wondering whether to take this a step further, but it relates I think. I'm also empathic. If a friend of mine is upset with me, I often feel it in them. I feel the emotion they have toward me, and also their feeling tone label. I'll know who it is and what they feel, if it's someone I know and love. And the person doesn't have to be in the room, or even in the country for me to experience this. Maybe that's revealing too much, but it's part of what it's like inside my head, or how I experience thinking, sort of.

That feeling tone you describe... I think I get that sometimes, but very rarely. I seem to have to know someone very well to get that feeling, and even then I can't always pick up on it except with words they seem to have put a lot of effort into. There are a few people I've never met before that I seem to pick it up with, and I seem to almost always become good friends with such people. What's funny is that I almost always describe/recognize it in terms of a word or connection, although the word or connection often doesn't really make sense or seem to fit them at first, yet usually seems to fit after I've learned more about them.
 

faith

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
408
MBTI Type
INFJ
If I'm going through a "dialogue" in my head trying to sort things out, I am actually watching a scene unfolding over "hearing" a voice.
This is familiar to me. When I talk to myself, I'm not so much talking as I am voicalizing the dialogue I'm hearing in my head.
For instance, I wouldn't think "hmm, I wonder if so and so had a good time at the party"...I would picture their actions in my head and form an overall impression of their feelings, without actually thinking up words for it.
Yes. I'd just sort of see/sense them at the party and feel their feelings about it.
I think I think in essences. ...Those things turn in my head into symbols... a collection of impressions, feelings, knowledges I have that always 'swim around' in particular combinations or patterns, around a certain idea... when something triggers me to need to access that idea, it's like I'm 'seeing' an atom or something... there's a nucleus that's its essential meaning or nature, and then many particles that orbit it in different paths/patterns/arrangements... and I can rearrange them if I want to, to see what it might 'swim' like... but I don't really see any of this and couldn't tell you anything even vaguely approaching tangible or whatever, about it. Except that it's very fast.
This is a fascinating description. I don't know that the atom metaphor is exactly what's going on in my head, but I can relate to the speed and the way "essences" of things spin around and mingle in different combinations. They seem to combine and recombine until the best combination is achieved.
If I'm thinking deeply, then I do feeling tones. To me, abstract concepts can be felt. I remember things by feeling and I feel out the connections between things. Once I've internalized something, then words are secondary. But it takes a long time to deeply internalize something.
I like the phrase "feeling tones"; I've never heard it before, but it makes sense to me. Those essense I spoke of, that spin around and combine with other essences, they have a good bit of feeling attached to them (not emotion, but sort of internal senses). Except for me, they begin on the inside, rather than my internalizing them by a process.
When you said "horse," I pictured a horse. However, my direct experience of horses is limited. If you had said "cat," then my first response would have been more of a feeling tone mixed with some actual emotion. Things that I've seen before, I'll remember as an image. I don't use imagery for my complex thinking except for a type of visual-spatial feeling tone processing that I'll use, but its more a feeling of relationships than imagery.
That's a good example. The more experiences I've had with a certain thing, the more complex the feeling-tone.

I'm not fluent in any foreign language, but I've studied French, Russian, and Hebrew. With French, I attempted to translate the French word into an English word, then the English word into the mental image/feeling/tone associated with it. It was a long and cumbersome process. With Russian and Hebrew, I discovered it was more efficient to skip the translation and just begin to attach the new words directly with the mental images/feelings/experiences. So when I'd eat sour cream, for example, I'd tell myself "smyetana" to build the association between the word and the experience.
Sometimes the concepts are word based... often times though I get something like an image or an impression (a vague image/feeling/sensation?). Most of those flashes by extremely quickly unless I deliberately try to hold onto them. Even then they fade away fast and I'm left with a vague sense of something that interests me but darn it I can't bring it into focus in my mind anymore.
There was a thread a while back about the "stream" of thought that ran deep beneath the surface, and the fact that it was sometimes difficult to tap into that stream quickly enough to catch the thoughts before they passed on by. I feel that quite often. I'm perfectly aware of that stream of thought, but I can't always bring it to the surface and put it into words. One of the reasons I enjoy writing is the challenge of capturing those thoughts to contain them and express them in words.
 

reason

New member
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,209
MBTI Type
ESFJ
I usually think in packets of Wrigley's spearmint chewing gum. I find that it gives all my ideas a pleasent, refreshing and distinct flavour.
 

marm

New member
Joined
Apr 27, 2007
Messages
134
MBTI Type
INFP
I usually think in packets of Wrigley's spearmint chewing gum. I find that it gives all my ideas a pleasent, refreshing and distinct flavour.

So, you're saying that your ideas are full of flavor, but lack any real substance.

:yim_rolling_on_the_
 

NoahFence

New member
Joined
Jun 23, 2007
Messages
288
MBTI Type
INTP
I think in "word oil". My thoughts run faster than words can be strung together, but still tend to be wordish. This is frustrating when trying to write lyrics, for example, as I'll come up with something clever that honestly fits the rhythm/meter when it's in my head, but when I try to get it out, it's like, WTF was I thinking..?

Sometimes a long chain is impossible to solidify into words...there's some sort of Heisenberg thing going on, where if I reduce any part of it into actual words, the rest disintigrates.
 

Ghost of the dead horse

filling some space
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
3,553
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Very intersting graph, Santtu ! For me, the very first part of a thought is usually an image, very similar to what you drew. Very often, it looks like a 3D - grid, and I see connections within. Also, sometimes it looks like the Coverflow funtion in iTunes. Then, when I work out the details, it changes into words.

So, where do I put my vote now ? I guess, with "not in words"...
Functions are cool :D Everything becomes apparent when I pictured them as graphs, with all the accompanying mathemathical notations. Engineering blueprints, charts, tables..

sometimes when I explain things, I make the kind of movement with my hand that indicates the kind of graph of a function I'm talking about. Steady function, a spike, a curve that approaches a line asymptotically..
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
5,903
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w8
My thoughts tend to have a word/pictures ratio which is inversely correlated with their complexity. Simpler thoughts are almost completely composed by words. The most complex are almost completely composed by pictures and are not easily explainable except via mathematical formulae.
 

alcea rosea

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2007
Messages
3,658
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
7w6
Do you think mostly in words or something else

Hard question that I cannot really answer. I never thought about how I think.

It's not really words or pictures that I think with. It's something I would call thoughts. ;) They are not excactly words and neither pictures but something in between. I do think with words sometimes too.

Because I'm not sure, I'm not voting either.
 

nightning

ish red no longer *sad*
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
3,741
MBTI Type
INfj
I've missed seeing this thread updated x-X

I'm not fluent in any foreign language, but I've studied French, Russian, and Hebrew. With French, I attempted to translate the French word into an English word, then the English word into the mental image/feeling/tone associated with it. It was a long and cumbersome process. With Russian and Hebrew, I discovered it was more efficient to skip the translation and just begin to attach the new words directly with the mental images/feelings/experiences. So when I'd eat sour cream, for example, I'd tell myself "smyetana" to build the association between the word and the experience.
That is interesting... When using words, I mostly think in English. Sometimes ideas pops into my head in Chinese though... those tend to be more specific. Like I want that exact description... meaning of the words. Usually those are accompanied by a "feeling tone". I also do not translate between English and Chinese very well. To translate is like to break down the thought into "meaning" or the overall impression like your images/feelings/experiences then convert the meaning over into words of the other language.

There was a thread a while back about the "stream" of thought that ran deep beneath the surface, and the fact that it was sometimes difficult to tap into that stream quickly enough to catch the thoughts before they passed on by. I feel that quite often. I'm perfectly aware of that stream of thought, but I can't always bring it to the surface and put it into words. One of the reasons I enjoy writing is the challenge of capturing those thoughts to contain them and express them in words.
Interesting... I'll have to search for it to read over. I've tried multiple methods of capturing the stream of thoughts. Writing it out on paper is too slow... even typing it out is too slow. Actually trying to type... figuring out the spelling etc impairs the process... I tried verbal dialogue recorded... even that is lacking. Some things are just not efficiently converted over into words. You have keywords... those are written down... the multiple meanings of the phrases, the feelings accompanying them though, passes by too quickly to be capture... in order to try describing it is to impair the flow. Overall I found it frustrating... and have given up on describing specifics... and just to jolt down the key points. And hope that the key points can make me relive what exactly was involved in between all that.

Edit: I can't seem to find that thread? x-X *sigh*
 

Sandy

New member
Joined
Oct 10, 2007
Messages
552
MBTI Type
INFP
Hi. This is my first post here. Some folks here have encountered me before on INFPgc, but most of you I have never met before. It's interesting to read all of these thoughts and see the type in most cases sitting beside the thought. I like to collect these thoughts and observations and form them into patterns that can used to recognize attributes of different kinds of people, to make the information available to my intuition. Or at least that's what I think it's good for.

Thinking for me is a mix of in words, except the words are remembered as sounds, and of mental processing that thinks in images. There is much inner dialog between the two. One will ask a question in words like "Did you turn off the stove?" and the other responds with images that demonstrate the action, or sometimes the latter asks with image and the former replies in words. The two seem to me to fit the definitions of right brain vs. left brain. One thinks in words, and I often speak those words out loud to myself, and it uses logic, and has learned to translate my thoughts into sequential form, and does ok handling detail much of the time, though my short term memory being rather flakey frustrates it's effors. The other thinks in image, and symbol, and is holistic, random and highly intuitive. The later runs the show, but the former contributes a lot.

I too make great use of feeling tones, but for me they function like labels; like nonverbal nomenclature. Most of my memories have feeling tone labels that I feel when I recall the memory. In my memories from before I learned to talk, I remember many items having these labels. They aren't something that I decide, they just are, or something subconscious determines them. People have feeling tone labels. I usually call this their vibe, but feeling tone label is a good way to describe how I experience a person's vibe. Every person has his/her own unique feel. I feel it when I read someone's words, or when I spend time with them IRL. I don't know how my mind comes up with the feeling tone label. It's seems as if my mind is getting it some how from the person, or from the feel of their inner spirit. I don't know but it's dependable, and after I spend time with someone, or have read several of their posts, I get to where I recognize people by their feeling tone label.

I'm wondering whether to take this a step further, but it relates I think. I'm also empathic. If a friend of mine is upset with me, I often feel it in them. I feel the emotion they have toward me, and also their feeling tone label. I'll know who it is and what they feel, if it's someone I know and love. And the person doesn't have to be in the room, or even in the country for me to experience this. Maybe that's revealing too much, but it's part of what it's like inside my head, or how I experience thinking, sort of.

Welcome, Will5250! :hi: I can totally relate to what you stated...
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
8,828
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
4w5
That is interesting... When using words, I mostly think in English. Sometimes ideas pops into my head in Chinese though... those tend to be more specific. Like I want that exact description... meaning of the words. Usually those are accompanied by a "feeling tone". I also do not translate between English and Chinese very well. To translate is like to break down the thought into "meaning" or the overall impression like your images/feelings/experiences then convert the meaning over into words of the other language.

That's interesting... I sometimes get an occasional thought in Latin, because that's the only other language I've studied. Although it isn't hard for me to translate it because we never strayed too far from just translating/interpreting passages into English.

So, where did you learn Chinese, though?
 

Kanamori

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
361
I think like

Code:
______
......|
......|
......L________
...............L__________
...............L__________

Each line is a meaning not a word.
 

ENTJ Extraordinaire

New member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
303
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
9w1
Interestingly I think Words when Talking, Rationalising, being logical,
But emotionally i process thoughts with pictures and constructed visual scenarios, that although still may contain dialogue, is mostly portrayed non-verbally
 

Asterion

Ruler of the Stars
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
2,331
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I used to think heavily in pictures, I'd have trouble saying exactly what I meant and I'd use my hands, and even draw a diagram on the odd occasion (I remember a particularly complex idea I had about a samurai in philosophy at one point :p).

I've gotten a lot better with words now, I use them a lot more, and I don't struggle as much, it just took a bit of practice etc. It still occasionally bugs me... oh, and I was a pretty good artist :D, but sucked real bad at english but still challenged myself with it, despite my sciencey mind.

ENTPs are supposed to be good brainstormers, I always thought I sucked at it because I lost at most of the word games we played. Turns out if it's idea brainstorming, I've got heaps to offer.
 

INTP

Active member
Joined
Jul 31, 2009
Messages
7,803
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx
mostly in words, but most of the time my thinking goes faster than i think about words, so i skip words pretty much and sometimes i just say "this" in my head and think about some really complex thing. i use images allso, but mostly words. for some reason sometimes i think in english, even tho im finnish, then i forget what the finnish word for something in english :D
 

Orangey

Blah
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
6,354
MBTI Type
ESTP
Enneagram
6w5
I don't think in words at all. I am much like King-of-Despair in that regard...I often have trouble putting to words exactly what I'm thinking in my mind, and I sometimes resort to really abstract diagrams to describe what I'm thinking. My students hate me for this.

I think this is why I liked Galen so much, because part of his "philosophy" was that squibbling over definitions is pointless, so long as we are all talking about the same "thing." Of course, he was a bit naive about it, and I am not that naive, but I do often naturally think in terms of "existing entities," and not necessarily "this particular entity called such and such." If there is an existing entity, and we can identify this entity, not by its name, but by its relationships with other, related entities, and by its properties, then what does its name matter? All that matters is its properties and its relationships, which we can discuss in the abstract without naming it in the particular.
 

Charmed Justice

Nickle Iron Silicone
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
2,805
MBTI Type
INFJ
I think almost entirely in pictures. My feelings and all, everything in my head translates into a graphic picture or animation of some sort.
 
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