I used to be a totally verbal thinker. One day (in 1983?) on a whim, I
went around the office to 7 or 8 of my high-tech. co-workers and asked
them "how" they think. In those days, that would not get you fired
immediately--I wouldn't recommend it today. Once they understood the
question, the answers seemed to fall about equally into two groups,
(and, yes, I know this is a very small sample)--either they were verbal
like me, or they thought in "pictures."
This was novel to me, but I taught myself to visualize concepts, even
abstract ones--guess what--my comprehension of the world increased with
practice and I suspect my measureable IQ has risen too--(it hasn't been
tested recently, but one knows what things are amenable to solution and
not).
I learned to switch modes, depending on the type of problem. There is no
doubt that "a picture is worth a thousand words." It is explication for
others that is sometimes difficult--words are so limiting and so slow.
Alan
Lee Sau Dan ~{@nJX6X~} <sdlee at faith.csis.hku.hk> wrote in message
news:7fr9hl8oiv.fsf at faith.csis.hku.hk...
> >>>>> "Larisa" == Larisa Migachyov <lvm at leland.Stanford.EDU> writes:
> Larisa> And, as several posters have already mentioned, thinking
> Larisa> does not have to involve speech. I offer some more
> Larisa> examples of nonverbal thinking:
>> Larisa> Create a simple melody. Now, "play" it in your mind.
> Larisa> Add a simple accompaniment. "Play" a variation on that
> Larisa> melody. "Play" another variation in the style of Mozart.
> Larisa> Create a 4-voice fugue based on that melody. Improvise
> Larisa> freely in your mind on that melody and smoothly meld it
> Larisa> into the tune from Beethoven's 5th.
>> Larisa> Design a simple mechanism that can withdraw a spoonful of
> Larisa> coffee from a jar, put it in a cup, and add boiling water
> Larisa> and cream. Let it be actuated by an electric motor of
> Larisa> given parameters. It should be simple to use, easy to
> Larisa> maintain, and portable.
>> Larisa> Obviously, the worlds of dance, music, art, engineering,
> Larisa> and sports can offer much more examples.
>> Try playing the game of Tetris, too! I can't see how far one could
> get if he plays it by verbal thinking.
>> Go and have a ride a bike or drive a car. Don't tell me you don't
> think when you're driving or riding a bike. And don't tell me that
> you have to talk to yourself in words inside your mind when you're
> doing this kind of thinking. Otherwise, you'll be too slow to react
> to anything, let alone accidents.
>>>> --
> Lee Sau Dan $(0,X)wAV(B(Big5)
~{@nJX6X~}(HZ)
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