What do you think in?

[kucala]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to put this. xD

Okay, so, what sort of thoughts do you generally think in? Pictures, words, etc.

I'm odd... I think in feelings. Any emotion I have tends be given a physical label... there are soft emotions, hot emotions, cold emotions, lukewarm, rough, hard, etc. And when remembering something, i'm more likely to remember what I was feeling in that situation, physically, mentally, or emotionally, than what something looked like or what was happening.

 

[bamf]

I think in words. I have the hardest time visualizing anything. Even people I've known for years and years, like my family, are blurry when I try and think of them.

 

[Nixie]

I don't have trouble picturing things. There is waaaayyyy to much going on in my inner world to just say I only do one thing...a symphony of chaotic, frenzied thoughts, pictures, words, feelings, music......

 

[Raccoon Love]

I'm an emotional thinker.

I tend to remember the most memorable experiences, and later when I look at things I associate them with people or other events. Its not so much if its a name or a face, but more the impact that the picture or label has had on me, how it made me feel.

 

[Wyote]

Pictures/movies... I'm very visual. I can recall a ton visually.

 

[laurie]

Pictures, movies, spoken words (never written), colours and emotions (usually given a colour).

It's a mess inside my head. I need to clean up.

 

[IndigoSensor]

I think in concepts, then sounds, then images (for the most part). I have typed out several times how I think but I can't find it at the moment, and as I just woke up I don't want to type it all out again :tongue1:

 

[Siamese cat]

I'm a highly visual person, I think in pictures mostly. This includes visual representation of connections between them, I'm often told that I have a quite the imagination and a very good visual memory. In Uni more then once during oral exams I was talking with my eyes closed and I could even very do complicated proofs that way, all I need is to think of a page on which I'm writing what I want to say or that I've seen during my study sessions.

Also most of the time those pictures have associated feelings and emotions to them, and the most memorable things that I remember I do because there was some intense feeling present that not even has to be directly related to the content of that mental picture or memory. My parents are still surprised by the things I remember from my childhood.

 

[jyrffw54]

I think in a swirl of colorful, patterned, speckled, refined, words, thoughts, ideas, feelings, whims. Sometimes sounds.

 

[Billy]

I think I think in symbolism and abstract ideas.

 

[~jet]

Yeah, I tend to think in pictures as well; sometimes motion picture (which I assume is normal.) Scenes from my writing, fantasizing about ____, etc. Even programming and web design start with visuals in my head, often of ethereal flowering constructs of symmetry and stuff.

 

[bamf]

Yeah, I should say that it's mostly words and sound. (I forgot about sound, which is weird seeing as almost all of my thoughts are sounds and spoken words with the occasional written words)

 

[Wyote]

Yea lots of sound for me too, forgot about that. I play things in my mind, I actually go through and experience it almost as if it were actually happening. Like a dream.... ya know... I'm a daydreamer =P

 

[Entyqua]

all of the above really...sight, sound, smell, feelings...they all tie in together

 

[Soulful]

I am extremely visual, so my natural mode has been to 'think' in images. However, I came to a point at which I began to intentionally ease off the visualization because it made abstract and conceptual notions more difficult to understand. I also think in words (sound).

 

[Nighthawk]

I often think in abstract patterns ... smaller patterns forming into a greater whole for a big picture understanding. Then I move back and forth between the big picture and the details.

I'm also a very visual person, so pictures would be a second way that I think.

Finally, I am drawn to words and sometimes think in a verbal sense.

 

[Matariki]

I tend to think in pictures, like a film. Patterns and audio come second for me.
I'm useless with words, for me to understand something I have to be able to visualize it.

 

[Gaze]

I see words clearly in my mind. And i also think in images.

 

[Jonathan]

It's hard to explain what I think in.... I've never actually considered that. But I'll give it a shot.
I think in relations and emotions. For example, if I'm remembering a period of time, I think of collectively all the time periods that were like that one. I don't think of all the specific time periods at once, but the concepts that were common to all of them.

Just to give an example; today was one of those cold-ish days, the people were emotionally energizing, the natural light wasn't obnoxiuosly penetrating or cozy and dark, but warm and yellow. I almost feel as if I have too much energy, and I wish there was an outlet but it's almost bedtime. After reflecting on how I felt today, I remember other days from past years that were similar in mood without even really consciously remembering them. I see all of this as kind of a fuzzy video that I'm looking at, but that I'm actually experiencing at the same time with sounds and pseudo-physical reactions like temperature, pain, pysical tension etc.

If I'm remembering someone, I think first about how they come across to me, which produces an almost physical emotion. I can't see them clearly, but I remember things that relate to them; like their general interests, that person they remind me of that I just can't put my finger on, and things we did together and how well (or poorly) we got along.

I could go on forever, but that's just the general idea of what goes through my mind, I guess.

 

[Prometheus]

I find myself thinking similar to a handful of posters in this thread. My thinking follows a sequence of emotion -> images -> sounds (if memory recall) -> words.

For example, I decided to replay a game I played two years ago (I took a long gaming hiatus) and, when arriving upon a certain part that I remember playing before, the emotion emerging from that scene created an immediate link between that instance and the one years earlier to the degree that I remembered what my immediate environment looked like (the layout of the room, objects on nearby surfaces, etc.), and moments later I began to hear the sounds I had been hearing (including television in the background), and the thoughts I had been thinking at that moment resurfaced. This, I believe, functions similar to memory associations such as conditioned stimuli and PTSD, though I lean more towards PTSD because it was hardwired into my memory without repetition.

I will also immediately recall the way I feel towards a person as soon as their name comes up, even before I remember what they look like (if I even know what they look like! Sometimes I don't even think I ever notice their appearance and only recognize them by their emotional presence), and everything else immediately falls into place.

When thinking abstractly, though, I tend to think in pictures and symbols, often creating a long tangle of associated ideas. However, when I choose to recall those thoughts, I will do so by recalling the emotions I felt while considering them.