Definitely pictures. Unless I'm trying to memorize a script or something were I'm specifically running words through my head. I do not believe I've ever intentionally thought in words. It doesn't seem very imaginative to me.
I definitely think in pictures...and I am ambidextrous so you would think it would be a combination for me.
When I think of a calendar, I think of linear pictures that kind of go in a loop with each picture having a corresponding picture/color/feeling-white/cold for January, blue/breezy for May etc.
Great thread-so interesting how differently we all think!
Wel.l How you think is pretty amazing! 'Everyone is different and its very much uncharted territory and that is interesting because sometimes I think people behave as if we know a lot, which we do, but there's a lot we don't know.
I definitely think in picture form. As a matter of fact my wife asks me what I am doing and I will tell her that I am trying to figure something out. I have to look at it (pictures) to figure it out.
I also find when I am confounded with a broken this or that that needs to be repaired and I am not sure what/where to start, I visualize it and figure it out.
I have been told to "write it out" and you will figure it out....NOT!
This is a tricky one, because I do not think I have a clear, dominant way of thinking. Sometimes words are the only appropriate way to work something out and other times only pictures will do.
I love to make actual, physical lists to organise a number of tasks, but the completion of these tasks can be visualised either / both as my hands working to fix something or as written instructions you might find in a non-pictorial manual.
The more I try to think about it now, the harder it is to work out what comes naturally... For example, people I know may be thought about in terms of what they look like / how they act / statistics and info about them I might find on Facebook etc.
This is a complex one.
Does anyone else have a combo?
wow, fascinating. Not sure what I do but am now going to study myself. I can recall being places I have loved. I've done a lot of good walking recently in beautiful places and didn't have a camera. I consciously studied scenes to remember them and it works to an extent. I just worry I'll run out of memory! I can recall a lot of experiences in pictures if I make an effort but do I actually think in pictures? ....thinking about what I will cook tonight I see myself checking out if I have ingredients in the various cupboards in the kitchen and standing by the cooker with the ingredients, chopping veg to cook.... Maybe I do!
Hmmm....I'm going to London at the weekend for a work meeting and when I think of the meeting (in a place I have never been to with people I don't know) I imagine a room and people and being there in images/pictures....in preparation for the task ahead I guess.
Thanks - great post.
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When people started sharing their experiences/telling a story or whatsoever it's as if it is being converted to a film playing in my head at the same time I am thinking intrapersonally.
When I'm thinking a lot, I am expressing them through art and words when I feel like it. When I'm depressed or something I talk to my teddy bear ._.
I love to think a lot. When I begin to think of something I feel like I'm drifting from the real world and then started to lose my focus little by little ._."
I absolutely think in pictures. Of course, sometimes I switch to words, especially when reviewing conversations or having discussions/debates/practice converstions in my head.
It was a big shock to me in the mid-90s when I read of this. I had never thought about how I thought. I assumed we all thought the same way. Wrong.
When I realized I think in pictures (like Temple Grandin) even though I'm outgoing and friendly, and occasionally think linearly -- it was exciting. I started asking everyone I know (still often do). It was so weird to discover that some people think IN WORDS or THOUGHTS! I had spent a lot of time as a paralegal and had gone to court, and finally realized that the good lawyers think in thoughts! Amazing.
Well, it makes me a better writer because I see the pictures and describe them.
I"m recently aware that, if I can't PICTURE it, I won't understand and won't learn whatever the topic. OTOH, I don't learn from watching videos either, I like to read the words. And, I watch television with Closed Captions on too (apparently I have trouble with auditory processing -- even though I'm a performer and singer -- soloist/ classical training). And, although "we" can have reading problems, I started reading at 3 and have always been a fast and thorough reader.
Another topic for you all to read about is "gifted visual spatial" thinking. Google that term. Also, "I think in pictures You think in words" These are good topics to research for you AND for your children.