I think in words
Do you think in words?
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Brown_Pride
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what's funny is when i first red this my mind read the number but thought of it more as a concept...like a unit, it didn't pick up on the actual value of the number, more that there was something there, when I scrolled down after about 3 seconds i couldn't remember the number and but when i thought about it for a second the number appeared in my mind.
I tend to skim over things my mind doesn't deem important at first, an image is stored that i can refer back to but when I read this all i got was that you were asking about symbols or actual images.
yeah that is crazy. I wonder if it has something to do with our mental wiring and the relationship our brains have with our eyes. For instance our brains tend to categorize things, well if you're brain only has 4 bins to choose from perhaps it just tosses it in the where it appears to fit best. If I had RED, YELLOW and BLUE bins and was given green i'd tend to shove that in the Blue bin... nah mean?
This.
But lets extrapolate it one step further. this tribe in the year 2012 couldn't differentiate between blue and green.
This has to change the way we view the earliest civilizations roaming the earth. The first being, if a language barrier controls your ability to decipher colors, then what was the "thing" that allowed the first person to tell the true difference between blue and green.
Secondly, how does this change their descriptions of certain events. Does this language barrier crossover to geometric shapes/patterns? Is the physical environment a "learned" experience?
Sidenote: If this tribe has been interbreeding for centuries upon centuries, couldn't this just be an example of a genetic defect?
it's going to sound like a crafted, made up answer, but the only time I think in words is when I'm thinking rap lyrics.
the rest of the time it's all pictures and concepts. I cant even think of disembodied voices without having a visual there, like a cloud or something.
I've always chalked it up to year and years of constant reading forcing my mind to imagine whatever scene I'm reading and crafting it in my mind.
Rap music... it's really just words that rhyme, sometimes to the syllable. It looks like a teleprompter.
Other forms of music, I guess it's because those words are being sang? I don't like ooooohhhhs and aaaaahhhhs on my mental teleprompter, I guess.
the rest of the time it's all pictures and concepts. I cant even think of disembodied voices without having a visual there, like a cloud or something.
I've always chalked it up to year and years of constant reading forcing my mind to imagine whatever scene I'm reading and crafting it in my mind.
Rap music... it's really just words that rhyme, sometimes to the syllable. It looks like a teleprompter.
Other forms of music, I guess it's because those words are being sang? I don't like ooooohhhhs and aaaaahhhhs on my mental teleprompter, I guess.
Megatron Island
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Brown_Pride
All Star
But lets extrapolate it one step further. this tribe in the year 2012 couldn't differentiate between blue and green.
This has to change the way we view the earliest civilizations roaming the earth. The first being, if a language barrier controls your ability to decipher colors, then what was the "thing" that allowed the first person to tell the true difference between blue and green.
Secondly, how does this change their descriptions of certain events. Does this language barrier crossover to geometric shapes/patterns? Is the physical environment a "learned" experience?
Sidenote: If this tribe has been interbreeding for centuries upon centuries, couldn't this just be an example of a genetic defect?
hmmmmmm
yeah i'm not buying the correlation between color identification and language... not yet i'd need to see more studies done accross a group of NOT highly in bred individuals. It just doesn't make sense that our eyes see different wave lengths because we don't know what to call something....
mbewane
Knicks: 93 til infinity
Very interesting thread.
I'd say I tend to think in words, not ALL the time (like when I see a cute girl, I don't think "She's cute"...I just react
) but if i'm really thinking about someting, then yes, words. I guess there is a difference between "feeling/sensing" (my example of seeing a cute girl) and actually thinking/reflecting on something (what movie am I going to go see, what should I buy for dinner...)
Regarding the language issue, I speak different languages so it's strange. My mother-tongue is french, but I hardly ever think in french, except for "serious" stuff (like when I go to the bank, exams, stuff like that). Or when I'm doing something, I'll speak to myself in french. But the rest of the time I mostly think either in english (which is and isn't a "foreign language" to me, since my first memories are of when I was living in the US) or in italian (that may come from the fact that I feel I kind of "came of age" while living in Italy). Hell even sometimes in dutch.
It's actually a highly relevant topic to me because apart from having learned different languages, I live in Belgium, which is divided by language (dutch/flemish and french). A small example: in french we have two "You": the 2nd person singular (Tu) and 2nd person plural (Vous). BUT when adressing someone with respect/you don't know, we use "Vous" which is the "polite form". But that's a distinction they hardly use in flemish, they usually just use je/jij (same as "You" in english). So us french-speakers sound "pompous" to them, while when they speak french and use "tu" it sounds impolite to us
About that vid (haven't watched it yet) I read a book about how language "forms" your mind, I'll try to find the title because it's crazy. Just how we use ourselves as the reference in space (the car is on my left) while some tribes use North/South/East/West, meaning they might say (the car is North of me), that in turn has implications on how we are, for example, more self-centred ("I" being the reference) than said tribes (who use the cardinal points, while we are mobile). About colors, there was this point about Russians (I believe) that "see" more colours than most people because they have more words for them, instead of saying "dark green" they have a whole other name for it for example (that's just an example I made up to give you the idea, if someone speaks russian feel free to correct me). I think Eskimos have like 50 words for "white", and so on...
It's really a fascinating topic. I realize for example that I'm usually more outgoing when speaking english than french, which doesn't really make sense as I speak french better than english. And then you have the whole issue of some concepts/words that cannot be translated, so if I'm thinking in one language but have to express myself in another, sometimes it can get frustrating or I'll have to use complicated sentences to get my point accross.
I'd say I tend to think in words, not ALL the time (like when I see a cute girl, I don't think "She's cute"...I just react
) but if i'm really thinking about someting, then yes, words. I guess there is a difference between "feeling/sensing" (my example of seeing a cute girl) and actually thinking/reflecting on something (what movie am I going to go see, what should I buy for dinner...)Regarding the language issue, I speak different languages so it's strange. My mother-tongue is french, but I hardly ever think in french, except for "serious" stuff (like when I go to the bank, exams, stuff like that). Or when I'm doing something, I'll speak to myself in french. But the rest of the time I mostly think either in english (which is and isn't a "foreign language" to me, since my first memories are of when I was living in the US) or in italian (that may come from the fact that I feel I kind of "came of age" while living in Italy). Hell even sometimes in dutch.
It's actually a highly relevant topic to me because apart from having learned different languages, I live in Belgium, which is divided by language (dutch/flemish and french). A small example: in french we have two "You": the 2nd person singular (Tu) and 2nd person plural (Vous). BUT when adressing someone with respect/you don't know, we use "Vous" which is the "polite form". But that's a distinction they hardly use in flemish, they usually just use je/jij (same as "You" in english). So us french-speakers sound "pompous" to them, while when they speak french and use "tu" it sounds impolite to us
About that vid (haven't watched it yet) I read a book about how language "forms" your mind, I'll try to find the title because it's crazy. Just how we use ourselves as the reference in space (the car is on my left) while some tribes use North/South/East/West, meaning they might say (the car is North of me), that in turn has implications on how we are, for example, more self-centred ("I" being the reference) than said tribes (who use the cardinal points, while we are mobile). About colors, there was this point about Russians (I believe) that "see" more colours than most people because they have more words for them, instead of saying "dark green" they have a whole other name for it for example (that's just an example I made up to give you the idea, if someone speaks russian feel free to correct me). I think Eskimos have like 50 words for "white", and so on...
It's really a fascinating topic. I realize for example that I'm usually more outgoing when speaking english than french, which doesn't really make sense as I speak french better than english. And then you have the whole issue of some concepts/words that cannot be translated, so if I'm thinking in one language but have to express myself in another, sometimes it can get frustrating or I'll have to use complicated sentences to get my point accross.
defining is simply a learned concept, certain things we learned, or learn with so much depth it then requires zero mental effort, it just is. It doesnt need to be visualized, thought about, nor grasped. Its understood in an instant.
a basic example: when I first learned of a "red cow" or a "red-head" i was like
, like i just learned of some rare mythological creature.
When I finally realized what were they talking about i was like
this cow aint red its orangeish.
When I thought about it, and accepted it as truth. I then began to see/percieve a red cow.
Things we learned from a child like language colors things are all learned from before we were able to consciously control our worlds. Therefore unless at some point in life you question what is and what isnt, whatever environmental stimuli that was given you from birth, will be you. .
This applies to everything. Just like you can question a mans dribble (that to him already is), as seen by this video things like color and language etc are not exempt. Its was all learned, accepted as truth, then become your interpretation of the world. There is now no different, anything contrary is
it just is.
a basic example: when I first learned of a "red cow" or a "red-head" i was like
, like i just learned of some rare mythological creature. When I finally realized what were they talking about i was like
this cow aint red its orangeish. When I thought about it, and accepted it as truth. I then began to see/percieve a red cow.
Things we learned from a child like language colors things are all learned from before we were able to consciously control our worlds. Therefore unless at some point in life you question what is and what isnt, whatever environmental stimuli that was given you from birth, will be you. .
This applies to everything. Just like you can question a mans dribble (that to him already is), as seen by this video things like color and language etc are not exempt. Its was all learned, accepted as truth, then become your interpretation of the world. There is now no different, anything contrary is
it just is.
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If you're bi-lingual you know what I am talking about in terms of thinking in "words".
I think, dream, compute in what I think is the English language, but once in a while when I experience a certain smell, or a certain feeling, that can ONLY be described by my original language, I automatically think of the word in that language.
It's weird as fukk.
I think, dream, compute in what I think is the English language, but once in a while when I experience a certain smell, or a certain feeling, that can ONLY be described by my original language, I automatically think of the word in that language.
It's weird as fukk.