Think of a cat. Now picture a cat.

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I learn verbally, but have no idea how I think.

If someone were to say "I was at a concert last night and met the singer", I would picture the speaker meeting the singer. I weren't picture each individual word, I would picture the whole sentence.

I didn't think to mention it, before, but I've always been told that I have a very vivid imagination. I just thought everybody had one, before. I was obviously wrong!

when I think of a cat, I think of my cat. I can't imagine anything that I haven't seen before. Every time I imagine something I use an image of an example that I know.

I'm like this too. Although I've seen enough cats to picture one in any shape, colour or size.
When I try to draw from imagination it's hard especially if I'm not familiar with the subject. I usually copy the subject over and over until it sticks in my memory. It's a bit annoying especially since I want to become a comic book illustrator.

When I thought of a cat, I thought of the cat I had when I was 10. Then when I pictured a cat, I saw the one I have now. Both pictures, though I don't consider myself to be overly visual.

I imagine myself as a cat. I would like to be a cat.

I really don't know what kind of thinker I am, I can think visually, quite well actually, but it's not my "default" setting. if asked to think of a cat I would think "cat". not the description of a cat, nor it colors, characteristics, personality or any other thing about cats. I don't see a cat, and I don't think of the abstract of a cat, or the concept of one... all I think is "cat" nothing more, nothing less. if asked to expand on that I can, if you want me to describe a cat I could without any trouble. but otherwise, it's just cat.

i am one of those people who generally has to translate from pictures. if a thought does not lend itself well to imagery, i will see it in print or "see" people speaking it or something to that effect. when i occasionally talk rapidly, i really am not sure where the thoughts are coming from. i cannot remember anything until i can visualize it, and i cannot understand instruction until i am able to visualize it or even draw it. until somewhat recently i assumed everyone was like this, so i'm curious about what it would be like to be able to make sense of things otherwise.

i do however have music playing in my head 24/7 and sometimes inner dialogues, monologues, or repeated phrases .. so i guess i do not exclusively think in pictures, just primarily. and just as easily, in video. there are a lot of jumbled thoughts going on in my head at all times. but i do think of visualization of thought as the thing that ties everything together and makes it understandable to me. even the music has pictures attached - i think of the artist, the album cover, the printed title of a song in my iTunes, the stereo that's playing it .. and so on.

now the cat exercise is actually a bit difficult for me, because i have half a dozen cats and i am never not thinking of cats. in fact if i am at home i am almost never without a cat on my lap or lying on my foot or chasing a pen around or scratching at something ... so the experience of cats is nearly constant.

so i tried thinking of a lamp, and got a little lamp slide show and a visual memory of a thrift store near my apartment and its shelves of lamps. they just pop up, and if i wanted to imagine a lamp that didn't exist (let's say i create a cat shaped lamp in my head) i can visualize it just as easily and it seems just as real as an actual item i am remembering. i can give it all the detail i want, and my thinking of it brings it to life for me. so "think of a lamp" and "picture a lamp" are virtually the same. if i try to extract my omnipresent cats from my brain and then "picture a cat" i have to struggle to get it to stay still. the lamps stay still on their own. except the lava lamps.

how do you think of a person if you cannot picture the person? i have difficulty with faces so even when i think of a relative the details of the face are hazy, unless i'm remembering a photo. but i get the person live, like on a little video screen inside my head.

Only can picture cats I've already seen.

win-thread. it's so fascinating to me that the very basics of how (let alone what) we think can vary so much.

i visualised a cat both times- 'think of' and 'picture' are much the same to me. Pedantic linguistics:)

Here's what I visualize: When I think of a cat, my mind relates all kinds of stuff to cats: Yes, I picture a cat here, but also the feel of its fur, the claws, more or less the sum of the parts of things that make a cat a cat. Eventually my mind reminds me that I am severely allergic to cats. Now when you ask me to picture a cat: I can clearly see its eyes, the shape of its face/body, etc. I can picture any infinite variety of cats too: tabby, tortoise shell, calico, orange, etc. From there, my mind starts thinking of pictures of cats in general: lions, tigers, mountain lions, etc.

My first mental reaction is "Okay what kind of cat?' because I immediately get pictures of tigers and lolcats and bobcats and that 'suprise kitten' from youtube along with the soundtrack. And I giggle a little to myself because it is STILL so damn cute. Oddly enough, I don't picture MY three cats.

So... you were saying something about cats?

Picturing is an integral part of thinking in my head so the wording is interchangable. I'm not able to just 'think' of a cat. I'm not eve sure I can picture what 'just thinking' is even like.

When I think of a cat, I think of a picture of a cat as well as everything I know about cats.

I am a visual thinker. For me it's not a series of still pictures that make up visual thinking. I think in motion picture or video. (Example "I am going grocery shopping" I vision myself pushing a cart at my local grocery store picking up food items off the shelves. It's just like watching a YouTube video, but without the sound.)

For the 'think of a cat', I visioned a grey cat with black stripes (common tabby around here) walking towards me and then sitting down.

Very interesting thread. I've not studied about cognitive processes before but this is making me want to read more.

It's slightly amusing to have to think about how I think - seems a bit of a circular argument, as by scrutinising it am I consciously directing it in a different way to normal? Am I thinking in words about my picture thoughts or are they pictures too? Then I think about my thinking about thoughts... and then I have to hit the 'escape' key to exit the 'do-while' loop

Meanwhile the cat in my head is busily shredding the carpet because it wants imaginary chicken and rubbing it's head on the doorframe, shedding hair that makes me sneeze. The chicken then puts in an appearance but it's alive and now the cat is crouched, tail wagging madly ready to pounce...

So, pictures and words I think I think with. My room is full of virtual cat hair & chicken feathers now.

They're the same. I see a cat grooming itself (generic...not, like, purebred) with CAT written in big, bold letters over head. Lots of text at the bottom...musings about various cats that I have encountered. But this is how I think of/visualize most things. Image+label and text at the bottom. I think in, like, pictures (or video) and text. Like...my internal thoughts that aren't...that don't really warrant and image/video...I sort of "see" (because i dont really see anything...right? it's in my head...i'm not REALLY looking at anything, am i?) text moving across my eyes...like this. Only it is in motion. Sometimes it runs backwards...which may be why I don't really recognize when text is backwards (as it appears in a mirror) and have been known to randomly (or intentionally) write things backwards (mirror image as well as "saw" instead of "was"). It's one thing that has made me wonder...since my internal thoughts seem to be in words, not pictures and, supposedly, people with ASDs "think in pictures". I think in, mostly, running text...recalling images and video when necessary.