3 ms·

How would someone think in words? You mean the words in the pictures or...?

by neom 2y ago

mjochim 2y ago
By "hearing" words, sentences, dialogues in their mind. Just like imagining a picture, but audio instead.
- Teever 2y ago
  but words, sentences, and dialogues are all features of language.
vivekd 2y ago
I think in words. For me during thought there is a literal voice in my putting my thoughts into words.
- BarryMilo 2y ago
  Are there really people who don't know about inner monologues?
  - IAmGraydon 2y ago
    I think it's more likely that they lack the awareness to recognize it.
- jerf 2y ago
  I have the standard internal monologue many people report, but I've never put much stock in the "words are necessary for thought" because while I think a lot in words, I also do a lot of thinking in not-words. We recently put the project I've been working on for the last year out into the field for the first time. As was fully expected, some bugs emerged. I needed to solve one of them. I designed a system in my head for spawning off child processes based on the parent process to do certain distinct types of work in a way that gives us access to OS process-level controls over the work, and then got about halfway through implementing it. Little to none of this design involved "words". I can't even say it involved much "visualization" either, except maybe in a very loose sense. It's hard to describe in words how I didn't use words but I've been programming for long enough that I pretty much just directly work in system-architecture space for such designs, especially relatively small ones like that that are just a couple day's work. Things like pattern language advocates aren't wrong that it can still be useful to put such things into words, especially for communication purposes, but I know through direct personal experience that words are not a necessary component of even quite complicated thought. "Subjective experience reports are always tricky, jerf. How do you know that you aren't fooling yourself about not using words?" A good and reasonable question, to which my answer is, I don't even have words for the sort of design I was doing. Some, from the aforementioned pattern languages, yes, but not in general. So I don't think I was just fooling myself on the grounds that even if I tried to serialize what I did directly into English, a transliteration rather than a translation, I don't think I could. I don't have one. I'm also not claiming to be special. I don't know the percentages but I'm sure many people do this too.
- binary132 2y ago
  Like, at the speed of speech?
- neom 2y ago
  I'm an idiot. I thought this meant, for some reason unknown to me... written words, something I couldn't imagine being able to think in. Spoken words, sure.
- perryizgr8 2y ago
  So if you want to look at your phone there's a voice going "I shall pick up my phone and swipe the lock away now."? Trying to understand if ALL thinking is in words or some subset.

How would someone think in words? You mean the words in the pictures or...?

by neom 2y ago

How would someone think in words? You mean the words in the pictures or...?

mjochim 2y ago

By "hearing" words, sentences, dialogues in their mind. Just like imagining a picture, but audio instead.

Teever 2y ago
but words, sentences, and dialogues are all features of language.

vivekd 2y ago

I think in words. For me during thought there is a literal voice in my putting my thoughts into words.

BarryMilo 2y ago
Are there really people who don't know about inner monologues?
- IAmGraydon 2y ago
  I think it's more likely that they lack the awareness to recognize it.
jerf 2y ago
I have the standard internal monologue many people report, but I've never put much stock in the "words are necessary for thought" because while I think a lot in words, I also do a lot of thinking in not-words. We recently put the project I've been working on for the last year out into the field for the first time. As was fully expected, some bugs emerged. I needed to solve one of them. I designed a system in my head for spawning off child processes based on the parent process to do certain distinct types of work in a way that gives us access to OS process-level controls over the work, and then got about halfway through implementing it. Little to none of this design involved "words". I can't even say it involved much "visualization" either, except maybe in a very loose sense. It's hard to describe in words how I didn't use words but I've been programming for long enough that I pretty much just directly work in system-architecture space for such designs, especially relatively small ones like that that are just a couple day's work. Things like pattern language advocates aren't wrong that it can still be useful to put such things into words, especially for communication purposes, but I know through direct personal experience that words are not a necessary component of even quite complicated thought. "Subjective experience reports are always tricky, jerf. How do you know that you aren't fooling yourself about not using words?" A good and reasonable question, to which my answer is, I don't even have words for the sort of design I was doing. Some, from the aforementioned pattern languages, yes, but not in general. So I don't think I was just fooling myself on the grounds that even if I tried to serialize what I did directly into English, a transliteration rather than a translation, I don't think I could. I don't have one. I'm also not claiming to be special. I don't know the percentages but I'm sure many people do this too.
binary132 2y ago
Like, at the speed of speech?
neom 2y ago
I'm an idiot. I thought this meant, for some reason unknown to me... written words, something I couldn't imagine being able to think in. Spoken words, sure.
perryizgr8 2y ago
So if you want to look at your phone there's a voice going "I shall pick up my phone and swipe the lock away now."? Trying to understand if ALL thinking is in words or some subset.