An odd question, I know. While I was in hospital with my son, I met another dad who was looking after his small son who had managed to catch pneumonia. He noticed that I was speaking to my little one in English and we got chatting (in Italian).
While we were chewing the cud the subject of thinking in another language came up and he asked me if I thought in words or images. I replied that I thought in words, and he explained that he sometimes thought using images. I found this really strange, although I've heard about others who think in pictures too. When I thought some more, in words, I decided that I too think in pictures – but only when I have an idea which requires the positioning of physical objects. I suppose this is normal.
Thinking yet more, I reckon that people who work with objects, such as architects, probably think using images, whereas laywers most probably think in words. The guy I was chatting to was a lawyer incidentally, but he said he thought in images. I found this weird, and started to question whether my own thinking processes were normal or not. Odd or what?
How do you think? Or does it depend what you are thinking about? Any thoughts…or images on this dear readers?
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About Alex Roe
Italy Chronicles Feed
I have come to an recent awareness that I think in pictures. I process information and the output is a picture. In my business communication, I find myself having to describing the picture (of the solution) to people. I am in the field of computer operations for a major telecommunications company.
Hi Donna,
Thanks for your comment. It seems as though whether you think in images or not depends on you and your way of thinking. Depending on what I’m thinking about I think in images or words, possibly a mixture of both.
It’s an interesting subject when you think about it:-)
Alex