What thought processes do you have when I say the word cat?

Post Reply New Topic

I wouldn't call it an "image" per se, because it is not clear, but I get a mix of whiskers, a cat nose, the smell of my childhood cat (pleasant) and a sensation of fur, but oddly I notice it in the roof of my mouth, though that's not quite right, but I don't know how to explain it any other way. There is a heaviness to my sense of "fur." Maybe it seems to be in my mouth because it is mixed with the smell? After that initial sense, which takes only moments, I start thinking about the many cats I have had in my life. Those thoughts are a mix of the image-ish type things, single words associated with my cats, and emotions.

I tend to picture a cat and hear a 'meow!' in my head. We have a lot of cats, so it's pretty easy for me.

Saw a white cat.

It's not really a "process" for me. It is more like a blip on the radar, a single point of data which pops into my mind and then disappears again because I have nothing to do with it. Imagine a audio visualizer (like this -- clicky) starting out flat and then jumping up briefly at the mention of the word "cat" and then returning to the baseline -- that is approximately what I "feel" in my brain.

Unlike others here I don't really think of images or videos of cats, and I don't immediately think of related concepts unprompted. I would if you asked me to dwell on the concept of "cat," or if you said "imagine a cat," but merely saying the word does nothing for me.

When I first saw this topic, I immediately pictured my long-time friend’s cat, Jerry (which was alive 20+ years ago).

Note: I don’t always “think in pictures”. It seems like I only “think in pictures” when I have a good graphical representation of the "object" in question. Otherwise, I am forced to think in words (or something else).

I see my cat. Then I think about how I see my cat, then I see my dad's cat. I think about seeing my dad's cat, then I see my mom's cat, then I see her other cat. If I continue to think about "cat" I start seeing, one at a time, cats I had that have died(there are 3 of them) then it might change to random cats. If I think about "cats" I see a lot of random cats. Only one at a time in detail, but there is still a sense of the other cats.

This is interesting because I was thinking about this topic earlier today.

A cute cuddly cat comes into my mind. An orange one

Saw an image of my cat followed by the thought of "KITTY!! !! !! !! !"

I love cats.

Either my fuffy orange tabby or my matte fur black/brown tabby, the sensations from feeling them physically and feeling their love for me and mine or them. Or some other combination of that. Really nice thoughts come from that simple word.

Let's see....smell seemed to come into play pretty early. I pictured our current cat, then the cat we had last year who ran off, then the cat we had before that. Then I could imagine the feel of her fur -- she's smooth but kind of coarse-haired. Then I could "smell" the cat, which is odd, because I've never considered that cats have a smell, Then I imagined her snuggling up against the back of my knees in my bed, then more smells -- little box, food bag. All that took place in the space of about 5 seconds.

Mine is like a Rolodex of images and videos flipping very quickly. I picture my own cats, my parent's cat, cats I had growing up, friends' cats, a cat on the street running, pictures of cats, anatomical diagrams of cats, text from books I've read about cats.... It's basically a big Rolodex of all of the cat-related things in my brain. I also get a really strong feeling of excitement and really want to cuddle my cats and just spend all day reading about cats.

Initially I see the characteristic silhouette of a sitting cat with the arched back, the ears and the whiskers.

I see in my mind the picture of a cat with beige fur and I hear meow.

I just think "meow".