Thinking to oneself

[Dom Tuk]

When thinking to oneself, the words are formed and heard in your mind. So if it is you talking to yourself, your voice is played in your mind. How does this work. As there is no sound uttered how does the brain make up the sound.

[JOEYSHABADO]

I hear no sound, but if I want I can make my thinking 'verbal', where I know I am carrying out word-based argument, which draws word-based conclusions. I told someone once that most of my thinking is not word based at all, and they thought I was weird...am I?

Very big question in psychology/philosophy. The extreme end, to which I think you subscribe, is the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, which suggests that thought cannot exist without language, that the content of thought is language itself. Makes it hard to explain those who grew up without language, though.

I do know that in some schizophrenic patients, they report hearing voices, just like you or I would. It is suggested by some that they suffer from a delusion of reference, that they cannot understand that the 'word-thoughts' that we all have, originate from themselves, and they imagine that it is real.

I'd be interested in hearing what these 'thoughts' sound like to you...is it just like hearing anothers' voice? Does anyone else get this?

[Info Freak]

Well when you pick up sound waves after it has all been processed in your ears it is up to your brain what they sound like to your head. Because the brain is so powerful it may seem like you are hearing yourself. Thats my take on it any way.

[JOEYSHABADO]

I don't think you're at all wrong there Info Freak. I know schizophrenia is an illness (poor people), but it does show what when it 'wants to' the brain can put you under the complete illusion of seeing and hearing things that aren't there at all. After all, it's this same brain that builds up a 'world' from sensory input, for hearing, just a bunch of electrical signals from a big watery tube.

[Thunderchild]

u think u r hearing your self but it is like a text to speech software at work as u might like to say.

its like when u recall a song or something someone has said u actually hear their voice in this case.

by the way joeyshablydo ur not strange but superior ! words r needed to comunicate not think i sometimes find i think without words (normally planning what i am about to do) and then think it in words and say what the heck did i think the words for they were not necesary and they took longer to formulate that the "picture/video thinking" but we r so used to words we use them all the time. i suppose that more mathematicall things have to be defined as words but sometimes i find i subconciously do a sum and find it is right: example i think the sum neccesary and instanly get the answer but not trusting it i do it like in word form and find it correct wow. i don't know if this was memory or that i really subconciously calculated it i just don't know and would raly like to know more of those hidden things of our mind.

[landie]

I dont think in words, I think in pictures, am I unusual?

[Calvesy]

Everyone is able to imagine any input that would normally come from the senses, or recall such an event from memory. Not all thoughts are verbal, unless you are planning a social interaction or a list of things to do. Consider untying a knot, finding a matching pair of socks or the smell of an unwashed PE kit.

[JOEYSHABADO]

landie, do you "get" people completely? Do you zone a little bit when lots of people are talking together?

I'm not being rude, it's just sometimes that highly visual thinking and this type of behaviour are often linked.

[JOEYSHABADO]

http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html

[landie]

I'm not entirely sure JOEYSHABADO, however I am fairly sure that I see or hear what people are saying before they finish speaking, or I solve a problem while others are discussing the best way of attacking it. It causes me to butt in during conversations when it's not my turn and, although it's embarrassing and antisocial, I don't seem to be ablr to avoid it. It's almost as if I've escaped to another dimension and others are in a slowed down time frame. Is that what you mean?

[Thunderchild]

yea i know what u mean

i had four in maths at school but the little i know i put to far greater use and often seem to know more than those who did better than me in maths at school. my electronics teacher never figured out how my project worked so well until the exam day (not that that helped me much)