Do you think mostly in words or something else

[The Ü™]

I think mostly with mental imagery. Even when there's a conversation, I often tend to imagine the words spoken as images...as if they are being typed in my brain.

When I visualize things or events that are not present in my view, it's as if I'm in an internal movie. When I listen to certain kinds of music, I'm more easily able to imagine my own movie scenes that are subjective and in no way related to the music, and so it becomes totally abstract.

 

[white]

Interesting OP Zergling.

By brother (ISFP), used to remember phone-numbers by how he dialed them (when he was 7-8 years old). We all thought it was cute (he's the baby in the family).

* That's how I remember numbers & codes (bank account numbers ) too. So for e.g. if a keypad is different from the one I normally use (e.g laptop row vs numpad), I'd normally screw up the input. If I'm asked to recite the numbers, I'd screw it up too, unless I do the air-typing Randomnity does.

I think about people rarely in concrete words. My mind sees people in something akin to flashes and swathes of colour and forms that may not be anything like their physical self. Someone strongly emotional (even online) I'd almost physically feel as a wash over me and I'd fight not to take on their colour. Shades of them may remind me of someone else and the figures overlap then. When I'm not forcing myself to focus, I could call someone by a different name because of the overlaps

If given a concrete problem at work, I see it in multi-dimensions, as part of a free-form lego structure to draw an analogy, where how it is meant to be/how I want it to be is the open bone structure, and the tools and pieces are in different shapes and colours, and i fiddle around with them like tetris blocks to get them into the structure.

Objects are in terms of sensations - e.g. when you say "book", I'll get an indelible smell of old paper and ink and feel the fragile edge of a page under my fingers.

Actions bring about the same - sensations. e.g. "dance" brings about the smell of hardwood floors, the physical cold of a studio, the memory of curving into a partner, the blankness of mind when the music takes over and I don't even see myself in the mirror, but as a flame reflection in colour, of the music.

When I have to verbalise things is when I draw upon language to "interprete" what my mind sees. It is not always enough.

 

[FallsPioneer]

Usually when I'm spacing out I think in images, and when I'm more anxious I think in scenarios much like Silently Honest said.

When I'm "in touch" with the world I usually think in words. Since I'm much more used to thinking in images and being anxious, it's actually a refreshing change of pace. I love thinking in images and abstraction, sure, but I know I can have complex thoughts that can be articulated in words. Having a simple thought is a nice feeling, too.

 

[Vortex]

I usually think in words, as written in a book or spoken. Past experiences (of my own) are described in third person and written down in my head. I think it's quite seldom I think in pictures - there would have to be a reason to stray from the inner voice and the constant ticker tape behind the eyes with all experience typed on it. Maybe I can visualize something from the words, but the words come before the picture if I'm not dreaming.

I also think in scenarios, but these scenarios are mostly dialogue with no real imagery going on.

 

[quietgirl]

I think in videos when thinking about events or relationships with people, and overall pictures/impressions/patterns/concepts when thinking about other things. There might be a word here and there but not ordered phrases or anything.

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.

I suspect this is why I often have trouble putting words to thoughts. I kinda thought most people were like that though....I mean, images are so much faster than words to think with...

This describes how I think accurately! Do you get the video thing when you read? It's like watching a movie to me.

 

[quietgirl]

* That's how I remember numbers & codes (bank account numbers ) too. So for e.g. if a keypad is different from the one I normally use (e.g laptop row vs numpad), I'd normally screw up the input. If I'm asked to recite the numbers, I'd screw it up too, unless I do the air-typing Randomnity does.

.

I was the same way back before cell phones & programmed numbers. I used to remember the pictures or pattern the numbers made on the phone. If you asked my what someone's number was specifically, I probably would have to look at the phone to figure out the numbers associated with the picture/pattern I had remembered.

When I listen to certain kinds of music, I'm more easily able to imagine my own movie scenes that are subjective and in no way related to the music, and so it becomes totally abstract.

Same here. I actually don't like to watch music videos because I already made the video in my head & it doesn't always match up with the actual video. Kinda ruins it for me. I can listen & "watch" music for hours though because of this, though.

 

[ygolo]

I didn't mean to put down anyone...

I suppose a lot of people remember things by how they use their fingers. It seems like the most effective way to lean to type.

It was just so different, the way my brother remembered phone numbers, that we thought it was cute. No put-down was intended. It worked real well.

Remember the little girl who won the junior high spelling-bee a few years ago...

She used to put her hands over her mouth and mouth out the words, before she spelled them out.

She was so different that she had a South Park character modeled after her, but there was no doubting it was an effective technique (despite what NLP experts say about visual spellers being more effective).

So to different modalities. It is part of what makes us unique.

 

[Mort Belfry]

I'm thinking something's wrong with me now, I think exclusively in words and I hear them all. Unless I'm doing something that involves focus, words are all I hear through my head on a continuous basis. I have trouble sleeping as a result.

What I'd like to know though is what people (mainly introverts) are pursuing when they think and what words they use. Just to discern the differences between Si, Ni, Ti and Fi.

For example if you were just sitting on a bus, what thoughts would run through your heads and what function would you tie that in with?

 

[cafe]

I think in words. I actually remember transferring over from non-word thinking to word thinking as a little girl. I think I was pre-school age. I felt a little sad about it, like I was being closed out of something. I also remember when I started not being able to see words without reading them. That wasn't as sad, for some reason.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I answered "not through words", tho it's probably what I think in the most. I think my list in order of prevalence..

-First in words, but in self-speak, not finnish, english or anything I know. I feel it's close enough to real languages that little is lost in translation. I do find that I'll naturally write rather verbosely if I try to capture the essence of my thoughts.
-Second, as graphical representations of functions..

I picture in my mind how some variable will be affected by another, and what the resulting function will look like.
-third, memorizations and imaginations of myself in some experience and how it makes me feel.. sounds, feelings, smells.. these are as much data as they constitute everything that I truly desire.
-fourth, as commonly accepted symbols. Every language has rules as to how to handle the symbols, rules to forming new expressions, new truths. It is exact, ideally flawless, can't describe everything, and it's relevance to real world must be verified in other ways. I use this kind of thinking when I want to be damn sure about something. Then I think like a computer (or attempt to), or use pencil and papre. I essentially make a conceptual model of some real thing, do my thinking with symbols, and then return the result to the real world. It's very much like engineering.

 

[developer]

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"...

 

[FFF]

I vaguely remember something about minute tongue movements being measured by scientists when people are thinking... errr maybe it was reading. This was done with deaf people who use sign language, and it was found they had minute hand movements.

 

[Mycroft]

I think largely in images and what Jung described as "feeling tones". (These aren't to be confused with emotions!)

However, when I've been rolling a concept around in my mind for some time and want to clarify, I often imagine a dialogue with a friend wherein I attempt to explain the concept to him/her, my mental reconstruction of him/her asking the questions and making the statements I would expect the actual person to.

From what I've seen, I think that's a pretty common INXJ thing.

 

[nightning]

Interesting... I've heard that the first thing our minds come up with are pictures... For example... think of a horse. What jumps out in your mind? The word horse? Or the image of a horse? I doubt few of us will see the letters HORSE spelt out in our minds. More like an image... or a recollection of a collection of images together to form a short film segment that plays in our mind accompanied with the emotions tied to that memory. Then we've unconsciously learn to translate that into words. As an effective means of communication... also as a way of bundling something complex into symbols. For our limited working memory cannot effectively process large quantity of information at once.

 

[wedekit]

I think in words, but I also think in pictures formed by my imagination. Because of that sometimes it is hard for me to put things I think into words, simply because it is comprised of more than just a sentence. I guess this would be my Ni. If I am thinking about what the plot of my novel should be about, I don't brainstorm words, I brainstorm pictures that summarize it. When I think of these pictures it invokes strong feelings of emotion and meaning that I weave into words later.

However, when I've been rolling a concept around in my mind for some time and want to clarify, I often imagine a dialogue with a friend wherein I attempt to explain the concept to him/her, my mental reconstruction of him/her asking the questions and making the statements I would expect the actual person to.

I also do this when I'm working with concepts.

 

[LucrativeSid]

I think in words most of the time, but they go so fast that I don't always hear them in my head. I might hear the first word or two in my head, and the rest of the words just zip through to the meaning. I suppose I think in images, too. I would describe my thought process as sort of like kayaking off of a waterfall - eternally. I hear it, I see it, I feel it, then BOOM, it's there, I'm falling, I'm floating back to the surface, and then it's tranquil for a bit.

I could never accurately explain such a thing. I don't think I'm ever stuck with one method or formula for anything - I could use any style or mode of thinking. I can be intuitive and random or logical, focused, and orderly. I have a huge crush on my brain. It's my favorite toy. And I would never create some kind of barrier inside of it. It's my playground and the wood chips taste good!

 

[marm]

I think largely in images and what Jung described as "feeling tones". (These aren't to be confused with emotions!)

However, when I've been rolling a concept around in my mind for some time and want to clarify, I often imagine a dialogue with a friend wherein I attempt to explain the concept to him/her, my mental reconstruction of him/her asking the questions and making the statements I would expect the actual person to.

From what I've seen, I think that's a pretty common INXJ thing.

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 talk to myself a lot and sometimes I have imaginary discussions with others. However, the more intellectual my thought process, then the more I go by the method of feeling tones. I only talk things out to myself when I'm trying to clarify my thinking, to figure out what precisely is on my mind.

Interesting... I've heard that the first thing our minds come up with are pictures... For example... think of a horse. What jumps out in your mind? The word horse? Or the image of a horse? I doubt few of us will see the letters HORSE spelt out in our minds. More like an image... or a recollection of a collection of images together to form a short film segment that plays in our mind accompanied with the emotions tied to that memory. Then we've unconsciously learn to translate that into words. As an effective means of communication... also as a way of bundling something complex into symbols. For our limited working memory cannot effectively process large quantity of information at once.

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.

 

[Mycroft]

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.

That's a good way of describing it. I tend to recall the reaction or "feeling" something evoked in me as a shorthand for the thing or concept itself. It's not as simple as "it made me feel happy", however. And it's not in a vacuum; the feeling-tones are defined in relation to all of their connections.

 

[Athenian200]

That's a good way of describing it. I tend to recall the reaction or "feeling" something evoked in me as a shorthand for the thing or concept itself. It's not as simple as "it made me feel happy", however. And it's not in a vacuum; the feeling-tones are defined in relation to all of their connections.

That's distinctly different from how I experience things. It's very weird, actually. It's kind of like there's a pattern match on every word or connection between words I see. For instance, a word like "house" would give me several ideas/connections at first, which would quickly be narrowed down by the context introduced by neighboring words.

I would probably start running with things like blueprints, real estate, federal and state building code regulations, architecture, construction and demolition, mortgages, people arguing with their neighbors about a property line, property taxes, neighborhood associations, among other things.

If there are other words around it, it's as if I identify the nature of the connection between the words itself as an exact pattern, and see only the parts that fit with the idea being expressed. It's very hard to explain how my mind narrows all these connections down to a few based on how the words are connected, and the nature of the words being connected... it's as if I have an innate idea of the nature of possible connections between words and ideas, and I'm aware of which are most likely, and I keep getting better at identifying which apply in which situations.

 

[nightning]

I would probably start running with things like blueprints, real estate, federal and state building code regulations, architecture, construction and demolition, mortgages, people arguing with their neighbors about a property line, property taxes, neighborhood associations, among other things.

If there are other words around it, it's as if I identify the nature of the connection between the words itself as an exact pattern, and see only the parts that fit with the idea being expressed. It's very hard to explain how my mind narrows all these connections down to a few based on how the words are connected, and the nature of the words being connected... it's as if I have an innate idea of the nature of possible connections between words and ideas, and I'm aware of which are most likely, and I keep getting better at identifying which apply in which situations.

And that is the basis of Ni in action is it not? A linking of related concepts together where one thought triggers another one to surface. Or it's more like relational distance. What you are currently thinking about has high importance... and it fades over time/as new concepts float into your mind. The next item that gets called up is the one that's related to whatever concepts in your mind... based on the hierarchy of importance. Oh at least that's how I think my mind works...

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. :sad: Most time the impressions are translated over to words. Or rather I have a running dialogue with myself in words overlaid with flashes.