what does it mean when people say they think in pictures or words?
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I’ve hears this talked about for years. But what does it mean? Do people close their eyes and see things as if their eyes were open? Are they hearing words as if with their ears?
I can make myself think pictures- like I know what a dog looks like, so I can close my eyes and have this inner knowing/vision of a dog. I can think words – like I’m planning out a sentence, but I dont hear them. I know them.
To me…thinking is a whole other sense. And so I struggle to explain to people how I think, because I just..well…think
I can offer anecdotes as to what I would call these.
When I think, I “speak” in my head. I have an active inner monologue and, while I am not speaking “to” anyone and know this, my thoughts come in the form of “spoken word.” Literally “Do I want that pack? But that one is cheaper… I like the flavor of that one better though… Ahhh, but I’m broke, that one.” That kind of thing.
I also think visually. For instance, if asked to do long form math, I have to visualize doing the problem on paper in my head.
Recalling a phone number isn’t recalling an abstract number, It’s recalling dialing it or seeing it on the screen.
An advantage is being able to, say, browse the fridge with it closed. I can open it, see what’s there, then browse the image in my brain after closing the door. The downside is that it can be slow. Doing more… Abstract things visually or “audibly” can be slow. I do have a TBI so that could play in.
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Some people can’t visualise anything if they close their eyes, not words or pictures. Others have one or the other some do both, some are bombarded with all the stimuli they associate with the object they picture like taste, smell, texture etc.
I’m not sure I can ELI5, but to me it’s a core sensitivity difference that’s formed and embellished from youth. Some people form mental pathways surrounding logocentrisms or symbols/words as static and *true* objects in the world, while others have more nominalist perspectives and might say that abstract base sensitivities and a lack of boundaries between things constitute reality. It’s often only convenient to refer to objects and ideas in the world, but the closer we look the less determinable their boundaries are.
Imagine a black dot. There are many assumptions you’ve made in doing just that. Is the dot fuzzy or sharp? Is it on a background when you picture ‘it’? All of these subtle sensitivities are understood as phenomenologies of perception and evidence of thinking with visual phenomena and without words.
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