Do you think in words or pictures?

[Anniepimm]

In both pictures and words, and also memory

[asciicat]

I think in words, but I also visualize as well. My main thoughts are mostly words.

[zorua9]

[LaHaine]

I think in both words and pictures. I have a habit of constantly holding conversations with myself in my head.

This. It's the same for me. When I'm laying down it's mostly images, but when I'm doing something, like writing, reading, studying, it's mostly words, unless I'm trying to remember something (I remember stuff better if I can visualize what I was doing at that moment or what was around me).

[creepado]

For me, the majority of my thinking (just day to day stuff) is in words. If I want to think in pictures I have to actually concentrate on doing so. A time when I would, for example, is if I'm trying to picture a certain scenario and what might happen in it. But even then, I'd picture the people kind of hazy I guess and focus on what they'd be saying. The whole words thing again. And when I do that, I kind of need to have my eyes closed.

 

So I guess thinking without pictures day to day... It's kind of like I have a conversation with myself in my mind (or just say random words, things, whatever) and in terms of images, I just focus on whatever it is I can actually physically see. So as I'm writing this, I'm focusing on my laptop, my dogs, other stuff in my room, but my mind is constantly thinking ahead about what I'm going to write next while I'm still writing the stuff that comes before it, I guess.

 

Which makes sense I suppose since I'm writing words at the moment, but even if I wasn't writing words and I was drawing a picture, or having a conversation with someone, or doing something else or whatever, the process in my mind would still be the same.

 

To clearly think with images, I need to kind of zone out a bit. I do it sometimes when I'm taking my dogs for a walk, but I really zone out then and don't pay much attention to what I'm doing and trip over stuff, etc. So for me, it takes a lot of concentration thinking in pictures, whereas words are always there in my mind doing stuff.

 

I hope that helps give a bit of perspective from this side.

Yes. me. I don't even understand how thinking in pictures work? No words in your head for some of the time? It's gotta be impossible! If I am imagining something, I am still thinking in words about it, but I can see the image. Like, I saw this scary creepypasta image earlier today, I can see it planted in my head when I think about it, but I am still thinking in words at the same time, like... "Smiley dog! Get it out of my head!" and I see the image at the same time. It's like commentary put in the background of images, I guess.

 

 

Plus, for me to think nothing, I have to repeat the word 'nothing' over and over again in my head, then when I am saying nothing in my head, I end up thinking about other stuff in the background. It is literally impossible to have no words in my head at all. I find it hard to just think about what it is like to think in just puctures.

[danicast]

I usually think like if it was a movie, the images run in my mind. But sometimes I think in words too.

[TikindiDragon]

Yes. me. I don't even understand how thinking in pictures work? No words in your head for some of the time? It's gotta be impossible! If I am imagining something, I am still thinking in words about it, but I can see the image. Like, I saw this scary creepypasta image earlier today, I can see it planted in my head when I think about it, but I am still thinking in words at the same time, like... "Smiley dog! Get it out of my head!" and I see the image at the same time. It's like commentary put in the background of images, I guess.

I can't understand how people think *without* images and solely in words. It just makes no sense to me. How can you *not* visualise everything?

[creepado]

I can visualise stuff in images if I wanted, but it is hazy, sometimes I would visualise what I am about to do, but not usually. Technically, I think about what I can see using words. Take a book for a example. sometimes characters will 'think'.

The author can sometimes write: The boy thought about going to the dairy.

Usually, the author would write: "I should go to the dairy..." The boy thought, "And... I'll buy some sweets."

That is my little explanation.

 

Dreams are the same. I am in it, and I still got the nonstop commentary. Even in 3rd person dreams (you watching everything happening) I get the nonstop commentary. That could be a little problem, because my thoughts can wonder, and I can start thinking about scary stuff suddenly. For example, I might suddenly think this: "I hope the slender man is not here..." That is a no-no in dreams. You can guess where that thought could take me...

 

But how can you have times where there is no words in your head? Can you explain what it is like?...An entire explanation about it.

Edited December 18, 2012 by creepado

[TikindiDragon]

I can visualise stuff in images if I wanted, but it is hazy, sometimes I would visualise what I am about to do, but not usually. Technically, I think about what I can see using words. Take a book for a example. sometimes characters will 'think'.

The author can sometimes write: The boy thought about going to the dairy.

Usually, the author would write: "I should go to the dairy..." The boy thought, "And... I'll buy some sweets."

That is my little explanation.

 

But how can you have times where there is no words in your head? Can you explain what it is like...A whole explanation about it?

Uh, not easily no. I've always had trouble trying to describe my though processes to people. It's the same as trying to describe how I can always point to magnetic North, and how I can 'feel' the amount of space I have around me. If it makes sense, it makes sense. If it doesn't.... it's a bit like trying to describe the colour blue to a blind man.

[KageSora]

I usually think in some combination of both.

 

Sometimes it's just words (like if I don't actually know how to picture something sometimes I just give up trying), sometimes it's just pictures (especially if I'm thinking about something I don't know how to describe in words), but usually there's a mix of words and pictures. Sort of like I'm narrating what the pictures are doing.

[DragonlordEvan]

I think in concepts and big images really. If I am struggling on a test, I close my eyes and think of the textbook, whiteboard or worksheet and I can "see" the answer.

I also do this when I am drawing. I will sometimes sit in front of a blank sheet of paper for 30 mins until I think of something to draw.

[Rabs]

I am a mathematician and an artists. So essentially, I'm just confused.

 

I think in pictures and words and feelings. When I draw, I actually think more in feelings than visual although I do both. It is more of an instinct that this is right and this is wrong. I am a very technical kind of artist. The important things to me are things like getting the structure, the weight, the feeling and the motion correctly. I think in those terms instead of a plain image, if that makes sense at all?

 

Day to day I think a lot in words if it's just a simple task. If I want to do something, I tend to think 'I'm going to go do X'. I also think often in pictures. My dreams are mostly 3rd person and like watching a movie. I can stop at any point in the day and essentially start up a movie in my head. Abstract ideas are usually not put into words, but are rather a feeling of a sort.

[-DiM-]

Both, for me! Whenever I think of building something in Minecraft, I see pictures. Other times, I just think. I suppose you could say, 'in words'.

 

Despite this, I'm quite bad at drawing. I can't figure out how one might transfer the drawing in one's head to paper.

[northxblue]

I think in both pictures and emotions, depending on how strongely I'm feeling feel at the time. I try not to think in words too often because I have a loose tongue, and more often than not tend to mix up what I'm thinking and what I'm saying... let's just say that's lead to more than a few uncomfortable situations in the past.

[danis]

I have a weird fusion of synesthesia. My emotions have colors (which makes therapy awesome funtimes), I can't tell you how I'm feeling, but I can tell you the color that my emotion is. Conversely, colors have personalities. Numbers, letters, dates, words and such have personalities too. And more complex memories are stored with scents, often unrelated images, and sounds.

 

 

[Shadowdrake]

I think in terms of words mostly, but they have tone and voices associated with them. It used to be that when I read, I'd have a video in my head most of the time, but now my mind switches between word and video, depending on whether the text is introspective/discussion, or it's concrete details. It also does that when I'm trying to write. Sometimes when I get an idea of something to draw it's just images, but it's a poor representation. So I'd say one or the other, but not both, plus sound and emotion.

[Pippyspot]

Pictures mostly

[goldL]

I always think in pictures. I can visualize anything in my head. I can't even imagine how to think in words.... I am such a visual thinker.

Edited December 30, 2012 by goldL

[MaskedDeath]

I know this sounds so stupid, but I have my mind organized like a computer screen.

[Prymula]

So visual at times I suffer trying to find the proper words to detail what I see. e_e

[Shirubia]

A weird case with me.

 

Sometimes I think with words... But either on english or japanese. Almost never on spanish even if it is my mother tongue!

Sometimes I think with images, accompanied by sounds and words.

 

But I mostly think with sounds or smells (thanks to synesthesia)

[georgexu94]

Both. I ussually thonk in pictures but when thinking a philo thought, then words.

 

Edit: Wait! You forgot sounds, smell, and touch.

Edited April 27, 2013 by georgexu94

[xxBurningxx]

I'm a very verbal thinker. I hardly ever think in pictures (unless someone is describing something to me and I need to visualize it). That said, when I do think with images...they're horrible images that aren't detailed and end up looking more like blobs in my mind than anything else~

 

I guess this contributes to how I want to be a novelist when I get older~

[Digital Decay]

I'm a pretty visual person , give me verbal instructions/information and I've forgotten them after 5 minutes, give me the same stuff in written form and I'll remember it for months.

Same goes for visualizing things - if I'm reading a book it's almost like watching a movie in my head, but if you'd try to explain a room layout for me through spoken language, I couldn't envision it if my life depended on it.

Still, I voted "both", because if I'm thinking about what I'll write next or how I best explain something to someone else, it's like having a silent conversation with myself in my head.

 

I'm a bit curious - how would you think in images about opinions/feelings/stuff that doesn't exist in visual form? I can't imagine how that would work.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Digital Decay

[Xaios]

Basically, I think in EVERYTHING. That means words, pictures, but also numbers, colours, feelings, and some thoughts that I will call "ghost thoughts" - They are not attached to anything that I could sense or grasp in the "real world", are too fast to understand and mostly occur when making logical connections.

 

This might sound over-the-top, but I have been professionally diagnosed to have an IQ of >140 as well as multiple psychic disfunctions. I also have a very abnormal way of leqarning things: Instead of trial-and-error, I observe and analyze until I know how it works. Examples include:

 

As a baby, I never crawled (which is essentially trying to walk), I always rolled from place to place. One day, I just stood up and walked.

 

Instead of slowly learning to talk, I just shut up for a couple months (I didn't even cry, except something was really important). My first words came in a complete sentence. (a very easy one, but gramatically correct.)

 

When I was in kindergarten, I always asked my parents to read out all license plates and road signs that we saw. I never tried to read them myself, until one day I basically said "This reads xyz" (whatever it was, and it was correct)

 

Psychic disfunctions does not mean that I am, well, a psychopath; I am thoroughly able to comprehend and control all of these, so I am actually pretty normal "outside". You wouldn't wanna read my thoughts, though.

 

I could write thousands of words about this. In fact, I probably will. But not now.