I picked “Rarely” for the last of those; I'm not sure if that's really right. If I'm thinking hard about something, I don't think in symbols, or if I do, they are at an unconscious level. If I am thinking about a spatial problem, for example, I just think about the problem.
Visual problems are interesting. Seems like almost all of us "visualize" pretty naturally, so I wouldn't be surprised if people described their mental language as similar to manipulating objects visually. That is also the most common aid to memory.
For the record, the more clear-cut cases of my abstract mental language I would describe as pseudo-concrete items that I manipulate by feel in my head. More like my sense of touch than sight. And the social version seems to be kind of like items whose textures represent emotions and tensions represent bonding and stuff.
It becomes less clear when I'm thinking about an abstract thing like, say, Justice. Then I'd just say there are nebulous things floating through each other with the emotion things hanging around and the manipulations are also less clear.
Maybe describing it as touch would be common, but I think I've heard more people imply visual manipulations.
Without going into detail right now, I feel like I think about things in roughly two ways (or really at two levels). I can think about things symbolically, which is what I do when I am learning a new language - I actively, consciously think about the steps I am doing. Then, once know how to do something, my neurons do the symbol manipulation for me so I wind up thinking about the problem at hand. I feel like this is the difference between a computer drawing in hardware versus software: both can work, but working with graphics hardware frees the computer up to “think” about the drawing at a higher level.
You are stretching my brain, amoken! I think I have my own language much more than I recognize because I interpret into English so often to communicate with others that that interpretation is very natural and not very noticeable.
Part of my reason for the poll was that it is a noticeable effort most of the time when I translate into English. When I was using Spanish more (and I was never fluent!) some concepts were more quickly translated into Spanish, which was odd. And a Russian coworker has said that he finds it easier to understand technical concepts in English because most of his technical education was in English.
Also, I am much quicker at expressing in written English than I am in spoken English. I may be better at understanding too, but I am better at remembering aural input than visual input, so it's hard to tell over the longer term. Some day I will be able to tie this all together to understand what's going on in my fat head.
Comments 9
Reply
Reply
It becomes less clear when I'm thinking about an abstract thing like, say, Justice. Then I'd just say there are nebulous things floating through each other with the emotion things hanging around and the manipulations are also less clear.
Maybe describing it as touch would be common, but I think I've heard more people imply visual manipulations.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Also, I am much quicker at expressing in written English than I am in spoken English. I may be better at understanding too, but I am better at remembering aural input than visual input, so it's hard to tell over the longer term. Some day I will be able to tie this all together to understand what's going on in my fat head.
Reply
Leave a comment