If you don't think in pictures then...

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So, I think in pictures, but apparently not everyone thinks like that. I'm pretty confused. So I have some questions if you are not someone who thinks in pictures:

How do you daydream?
When you think about what you did yesterday or any other memory, does it not play back in your head like a video or in pictures, at all?
If somebody says "cat" do you not visualise different types of cats?
So do you just see like.. Nothingness? What is it like?

By the way I don't mean to offend anyone about the way they think or anything, I just want to understand because I'm very curious

I'm not sure what I think in. I don't think in photorealistic, google image search pictures like Temple Grandin describes.

I think I think in sounds, if I think in anything. Music is a pretty natural language to me, and my thoughts sound in my own voice in my head. My own true voice, not necessarily what it sounds like to other people. My outer voice changed when I transitioned but my inner voice was always a guy.

When you say cat, I think of the noises it makes, or the feeling of its fur. I've always been hyperaware of sounds. I am constantly talking to myself in my head.

Memories play back like pictures or a movie, but more like impressions, and along with the visual impression I get what it sounded like, smelled like, felt like.

Sorry, I don't have any answers for you since I also think in pictures and Videos. Although I don't day-dream, I think. I'm not entirely sure what it is to day-dream. I just wanted to say that I often wonder about this too.

I am effectivly the same as Dots in that I get the impressions or shadows when I attempt to daydream but all these daydreams come with next to no colour. If you say cat I will think of the word not the animal, only when I attempt to visualise a cat will I get the impression of one. I dont think much in terms of music most of my daydreams involve examining the thought process behind it, kind of like an old text adventure on the PC.
I believe I think in words and feelings primarily in that each word is linked to a feeling or emotion so that "cat" triggers the feeling of patting its fur.
Hope that made sence.

I think in pictures when the situation allows for it, but often I'll think in words simultaneously("yesterday I went to the store" at the same time as I envision myself doing it), and when I reason, or work through a problem, it's always in words.

The pictures in my head are usually vague and not very detailed, though. I can keep about one detail "in focus" at a time, the rest is sort of hazy and amorphous.

By the way, when I think in words, it's always auditory, I don't see the words.

I think in a mix. I think in pictures and have a line of words going with it usually. If I visualize something then I do/don't. Heard to describe...
I guess you could say I think in 2d. i can spin lets say a cube, but I don't feel like I can visualize in 3d really well.

Lets say I am driving home, I would run a video through the way of how I go home, that way I can be in the correct lane right away. I need to hear landmarks for getting places, not road names usually

I would say I have an associative thinking process

Last edited by Delphiki on 07 May 2012, 11:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

That is a very good question. I never thought about how other people could day dream and not see a video in their mind.

I only learned recently that most people do not think in pictures (I think that is strange). I cannot answer your question as I see images in my mind continually, this is why I always know where my car is parked (because I can see it), why I can always find my way back from somewhere (I just follow the things I saw getting there backwards), but I cannot remember my grocery list - because I do not think in words.

Ah your answers are really interesting. I think in crystal clear 3D images and videos, but that is all I think in, I actually thought that was what 'thinking' meant. When I have conversations with people it's hard because have to translate everything into words.

I think in words, but can also think in pictures when necessary (for example, solving physics problems). When someone says cat, I listen to the rest of what the speaker is saying and carry on the conversation, having simply a conscious understanding of the net meaning of the phrase. If, however, the word 'cat' is spoken out of context, then I will try to regress a meaning for why the speaker said 'cat.' This involves various video scenarios with spoken words playing out in my mind.

I tend to think in pictures, I think. If I think of "milk" I picture a milk carton in my mind, for example. I might also picture where it would be in the local supermarket. Problem-solving for me is a mix of pictures and words, I think. Daydreaming is almost always in pictures. Kind of hard to explain; I can't say I've ever really analyzed my way of thinking.

Really? That is hard for me to imagine.

I have the same problem. It would be so nice to be able to take the pictures and videos up and show them to people. I'm not exactly sure how I'm able to see some of the things I think, because I could never paint a picture of it or act it. I only realize this when I start telling somebody about it and try to translate it into words. That's when I realize that this isn't something I should be able to see. Those things are so clear in my mind when they first come up, but when I go over it in order to translate it into words, it's very vague and it get's even harder to translate... If that makes any sense.

Impressions, shadows, shapeless masses mostly. Almost like liquids that are alive.

I talk to myself, in my mind, too. I can have conversations with myself. These are often productive conversations. This occurs as both sound and text, simultaneously. Sometimes when someone says something, I notice that my mind converts it into text as a way of removing all the other stuff and making it more comprehensible. But then it reads it, with sound. It's done this ever since I could read; what it did before I am not sure. I sure was happy when I learned to read though, I practically exploded with joy. Family still tease me a bit about it, in a friendly way ("I can READ!! !" they'll say in a kids voice)

I generally am unable to make clear pictures in my mind, instead there is a sort of ... I'm not sure how to describe it, almost like a wireframe but not a wireframe at all. Important features and their relative positions exist but in a shapeless, formless sort of way.

Now there is one exception and that's daydreaming. Usually I daydream the way that I think, but when I daydream about places, particularly places I know very well, things become very different. I am there, and it can be near photorealistic. I can walk around, look at things. Sometimes the detail level is incredibly high, sometimes not.

I need to do this to go to sleep. Before falling asleep, I visualize some place from my past and have a walk around in it, usually places where I used to live. I walk around in it, exploring the house, recalling things as I go. Step outside, walk around the yard. First I map everything out (things start out formless) and then, once everything is in place, I begin investigating details (now things go into high resolution).

Last edited by edgewaters on 07 May 2012, 11:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think with a mix of concepts, images, and auditory words. I don't actually hear the words, I just think them. I have no problem mentally imagining myself being an air molecule and being drawn into an internal combustion engine, which is similar to temple's thoughts on how an animal might feel about a situation.

I can mentally walk through nearly any place I've ever been in. I also recall being able to "Replay" snippets of movie clips mentally after seeing a film when I was younger. The ability is fading for me, but if I concentrate I can still do it.

I mostly think visually, myself.

i think in words, sounds, smells, physical sensations, tastes, etc.... and to a lesser degree i think in pictures. a lot of my thoughts are amorphous, shifting experiences that are very difficult to communicate (something like trying to explain the content and context of a dream). sometimes it takes me a while to communicate a thought because i have to translate it to verbalise. like everyone, i usually have a couple of thoughts going on at once in layers, but that makes it hard to shift out and talk. i imagine everyone's mind is fairly similar, but perhaps other people have better communication tools.

I see it like a mosaic of different images producing a larger base image.
Each has it's own data.