Do you think in ideas or words?

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I think I think in ideas.

I find that most of the time I can't put into words exactly what I'm thinking. If I was thinking in words, that probably wouldn't be a problem. Since it is... ideas.

I mostly think in ideas, but there are times when I think in words.

A diagram is more meaningful to me than a paragraph. I can understand a paragraph, but as I'm deciphering it I'm creating associations in my mind that are more like what a diagram would convey.

An example is more meaningful to me than an explanation. I can get an instant aha moment from an example, whereas a wordy explanation is something I have to slog through to get to the insight or concept that the explanation is trying to convey.

Sometimes it's necessary to use explanations made up of words in order to share information or ideas with other people, but I can't imagine using all that verbal clutter in order to think in my own head.

This topic confuses me. I don't know how I think, and I don't know how you all are using the term 'idea', but you seem to all know what it means. How would I work out how I think? (serious question)

When I observe my mind, I experience both images and/or 'talk' arising at various times.

I think exclusively in ideas, not words. I only use words to express ideas.

Pictures and videos is mostly how I think.

I tried to explain to someone how I think, and they got confused....
It's a bit like a 4-dimensional spider diagram, composed of words, pictures, "video clips" and associations, linking separate "bits" together. It's hard to explain it just using language.
It's different from thinking purely in speech (the "internal monologue" only happens when I'm trying to write something and I'm translating from the way I process to the way I can communicate with others). Do others use something like this?

I think that I think more in pictures than anything.

This thread confuses me!
What does it mean? Aren't words ideas? And can't ideas be words? And how do you know if you're thinking in words, or pictures of words, or sounds of words.....

I'd say both. Usually an idea leads to a realization or more ideas which I later break down to fast paced picture sequences or words. But it does work the other way around as well.

i do not know how i think. i only see the end result.

i guess i choose a particular scenario to consider and i break it down to all the aspects i know about it, and then i sew those aspects back together with my reasoning power, and it is the style of the stitching that i instinctively and subconsciously perform that gives me ideas of how other things fit together in the same way.

i do not use words in my mind until my concept is solid, and the words that spring from my mind are rendered as an "idea". my thinking starts at a very low level about all that i consider, and does not result in ideas or words until i have conceptually resolved the connections between the elements of my ponderance. the manner in which i resolve my internal queries into personal "theories" is indescribable. it is like i sit on a hill far way from my mind and watch as it solves what i am thinking about and when i see the solution i can formulate it into words and then build peripheral ideas to either report or use to consider other things that interest me.

yes that makes little sense i know and i should not have replied but there one goes.

Understood. I have only a fleeting, vague notion of what happens when I think, because when I'm thinking, my attention is on making the thoughts, and there is no spare observer to watch me doing that. I suppose "thinking in ideas" here means thinking without words.

I'm sure a lot of my mental activity is wordless. The nearest I can get to describing my thinking is that I get wordless thoughts as the primary process, and I may or may not convert them into English. One guy referred to such thoughts as "mentalese" which I thought was a good word for it. I admit that putting things into words is very common, and useful for communicating it to others and for checking the validity of the idea, but it doesn't feel like my primary thinking process. I don't see how it could be, because language is taught, and it's only an accident that I was taught English and not Arabic. Language probably enhances thinking greatly, but I see it as an expression of thought rather than thought itself.

I think a lot in words. In high school, some people thought this was weird. It's not uncommon for me to have a thought like, "Hmm, I think I'll do this."

i don't know how to answer this. sometimes i spend time looking at things without actually having thoughts about them that could be translated into words, so i'll say not words, instinctively. i would have said in pictures but that's more how i remember or retrieve information. i think my brain is in my eyeballs.

I usually think in a combination of pictures and words. The pictures come first, followed by words. I have a much easier time visualizing a situation than coming up with the appropriate text. It's kind of like my mind is a kid's picture book and subtitles pop up underneath the pictures.

Ideas, usually. I've lost a lot of marks in school for not showing my work, not explaining my logic, or failing to state the obvious.