Thinking about thinking

EdgarAllenPoo

I've always had an interest in psychology and one of the main things I always wanted to know is how do people think?

I think it's a childish question but it's always fascinated me. It's hard to explain what I mean exactly and on further inspection I'll probably turn out to be a nut job but I think as if I'm talking to someone else, as if I'm in constant conversation with someone(and no nobody talks back:D ). Is that weird, normal? How do you think?

snorlax

Everyone's perception of the world is different depending on their individual attidues formed by their own environments in which they live (home life/ friends/ family etc) and especially as regards their upbringing.

Do two genetically identical twins turn into the same the same in terms of personality/ various attitidues? although their upbringing is in a simliar environment they both experience the world/ their enviornment in different ways depending on their experiences/ the people who interact with them and how they are reacted to.

quickbeam

GDM wrote:

I think as if I'm talking to someone else, as if I'm in constant conversation with someone(and no nobody talks back:D ). Is that weird, normal? How do you think?

That's exactly how I think. So if you're a nut then at least you're not the only nut.

Find it very hard to do this in most circumstances as there's so many distractions in life, but one place I find easy to do this is while walking. I never bring music with me when I waslk as I find it too distracting (even though I'm a music fanatic), but I just walk and think, and have conversations with people.

If somebody is pissing me off, I have a conversation with them until it's out of my system and gives me a better perspective. If I'm thinking about deep things - the "meaning of life," I'll imagine a random person (somebody I know: a friend, relative) and tell them my beliefs and as I'm talking to them, I'll often come up with new ideas or new branches to my ideas.

When not in the mood for deep thought I'll still have imaginary conversations about whatever's on my mind - the book I'm currently reading, the latest episode of Lost, my favourite band - whatever.

I don't know how obvious it is that I'm having these imaginary conversations. I don't talk out loud, but I do form the words in my mouth and sometimes move my lips slightly. Somebody seeing me will probably find me making funny expressions - frowning, thoughtful, puzzled, etc. But I reckon they're caught up in their world enough not to notice too much.

EdgarAllenPoo

I don't imagine I'm talking to someone else, that's really just how I would describe it, I can't think of another way to explain it.

quickbeam

Okay, so it's just me that's nuts then

D-Generate

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031226.html Good question about "In what language do deaf people think?"

Zillah

GDM wrote:

I've always had an interest in psychology and one of the main things I always wanted to know is how do people think?

I believe you're asking about the nature of sentience... Y'know, the big old meaning of life, what it means to be human, is there a soul?

Science says that we think by running what can be compared to computer programmes on our gooey-electric brain. Electric currents get shot through pathways and form complex patterns that lead to decision making.

I'm sure someone who's actually studied neurology could explain that better than I.

EDIT: Oh, and the article from the previous post kicks ass, read it.

Valmont

Yeah that was a really great article, I never thought about that before. Might pick up that Oliver Sachs book, I heard another of his books was good too "the man who mistook his wife for a hat", it's about people with perceptual disorders.

unityofsaints

That article was interesting.

I'm bilingual and the question I get asked really often is "Do you think in English or in German?" To me this question is almost as unanswerable as "What is it like to be famous?" would be to Tom Cruise.

Like some of the above posters I often think in conversations but the language doesn't really matter.

I've given up trying to explain my "universal language" theory to people who ask me the above question Basically I believe something like 60% of a multilingual's thoughts will be in a particular language because they are conversational and the rest will be in the "universal language" which is really just a jumble of emotions and perceptions.

ST*

unityofsaints wrote:

That article was interesting.

I'm bilingual and the question I get asked really often is "Do you think in English or in German?"

I think the answer to this one is yes and no.

If you were to watch the actions of someone at early learning stages of a language - it is like watching the whole process (breaking down and translation) in slow motion. Therefore, they are in fact 'thinking' in their mother tongue.

For those who have fleuncy in a language, conversation is free-flowing and goes unhindered by lack of grammar and pronunciation uncertainities. I think when one reaches the point of fleuncy, you then think with the language. You can comprehend and reply immediately without hesitation.

Zillah

ST* wrote:

I think the answer to this one is yes and no.

No its neither according to the guy who said that...

BossArky

quickbeam wrote:

Okay, so it's just me that's nuts then

Yes

You may want to watch that... what age are you now? Have you always done that? Perhaps when you are older you will continue to "talk" to yourself without noticing that you are gradually making more and more noise... culminating in really talking out loud to yourself.... like people who read the paper aloud to themselves.

My girlfriend is multi-lingual, fluent in 4 languages. A while back she was telling me that having lived in england for the past 20 months she now "thinks" in English as opposed to her mother tongue.

The way I would summarise my thinking process would be somewhat like an internal monologue, similar to how James Joyce protrays Leopold Bloom in Ulysses or Stephen in Portrait contemplating the world around them.

rollie

It’s the age old debate does language equal thought?? Or more accurately does language equal thought and hence sentience? Its one of the bigger questions in life. Personally I think language is a sloppy form of communication and transference of complex thought and emotion, and could not possibly equal thought alone. i consider myself a reflector, partly due to a psyche test I did once, but mainly due to the fact that i spend significant proportions of my day thinking.

Most (if not all) of my higher thinking occurs as arguments, discussions and debates with significant people in my life (ex-girlfriend, colleague etc.). I use these discussions to probe the subject or problem from different angles, helping me better form not only my thought in terms of language but also in terms of emotion and hence explore all sides of my self. With regard to actual thought processes, biologically speaking there is no real answer. Scientists are still finding out new aspects and functions in the brain. Just last week I read an article in Scientific American Mind that changed my understanding of neuro-cellular biology that I was taught for the leaving cert, not too long ago.

So basically no one knows. I love this psychology business, its a science I swear...I just cant prove it. Oops I used the "p" word.

Rollie

artieanna

GDM wrote:

I think as if I'm talking to someone else, as if I'm in constant conversation with someone(and no nobody talks back:D ). Is that weird, normal? How do you think?

I can completly relate to the above.. I think when we look for answers or try to solve problems or just doing everyday thinking. we are using our conscious mind, (we have a talker in our head who says the things we don't say out loud "what'll i do to manage this...oh no... oh great... etc;) this voice helps us to express emotions, anger, fear, happiness etc. This inner voice can be quite negative, I'll never get it done, oh I've made a mess,etc etc....

i hope this makes sense and i'm not being nutty:D

JuliusCaesar

I think there might be a difference between those who have acquired bilingualism as adults and those who grew up bilingual...It's a long time since I looked at the research but I seem to remember that bilingual children somehow seemed to store the languages seperately. (It was reassuring to me as I'm a REALLY bad translater between my childhood languages, but can translate fine between those I learnt at school/college in a taught environment.) The language I think in is heavily influenced by the environment I'm in - which language am I speaking mostly, which language is around me.
As for thinking, thinking doesn't just happen in words, but also images & emotions. Rational thought is taught!