I think that thinking can happen in different modes depending on what is useful for the domain you're contemplating. When I am programming I often "see" program

I think that thinking can happen in different modes depending on what is useful for the domain you're contemplating. When I am programming I often "see" programs as geometric or organic interlocking structures. I find that I don't really understand a program until I can visualize its structure. On the other hand sometimes I use language and dialog to think out a problem. I remember a specific incident where I was laying in bed on a hot day and I thought "I'm laying here constantly sweating" and then I thought "sweating sounds like a Chinese name" and that's when I realized I had been thinking in Chinese where sweating is pronounced "chu han". You could argue that language-style thought is "translated" from deeper concepts, but I think that goes without saying because there must be some layer of thought that is pre-representation.