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Originally Posted by ctutt  Excuse my ignorance, but what is "non-verbal" thinking?
We gather information through our 5 or 6 senses and then express them to ourselves and others verbally, ie. with words.
To experience without words would be indescribable, would it not? |
Nothing to apologize for. We all are here to learn.
You are right we gather information from all our senses. You are almost right about expressing information to others verbally. In addition to verbal communication there is a large portion of information that can be communicated without the use of words - non-verbally. This concept was made popular by the book "Body language" and the term "body language" is used to describe such communication. In fact, non-verbal communication includes also the tone and loudness of voice, the intonations, the rhythm, the speed and all other analog characteristics of the voice. Our appearance, our clothing (whatever is known as part of our image) also communicates certain information. The last bit is unfortunate for me, since I prefer comfortable clothes and not nicely looking
Some studies claim that all this non-verbal information takes about 5\6 of the total information leaving verbal communication only the measly 1\6. If you think about it, it is likely to be true. If a person is saying the right things but in an unpleasant voice, with scared expression on his face and the slouched pose, he is not going to win a lot of trust from the audience. This is all well known to good public speakers and is usually covered during public speaking seminars.
The point that is the most interesting is that you say that we express information to ourselves in words. Now, that is not true in my experience.
Think about it, how do you recall some past event?
Me, I usually have a short mental movie popping up in front of my eyes. Sometimes I have the sounds that accompany this movie.
I do sometimes name, what I'm seing. For example, I say to myself - this is my fourth birthday. And in the background I hear my own voice slowly reading the inscription on the birthday cake - Ilya, four years, hooray!
At the same time I see the cake - it is a rather small chocolate cake with four candles placed in a square pattern. The inscription is laid out in print with the rectangular pieces of the chocolate bar. I see the table the cake is standing on, I see the dishes, the glasses, my relatives around the table, the furniture and its contents, the wallpaper.... I could go on for hours describing this picture, but when I see it in my mind, I see it as a whole, as a movie.
That is the example of non-verbal thinking. Some people tend to recall sounds more than images. Some recall the feelings. Some mix it all up in different proportions. But there is just too much information out there to describe it all with words.
There are people who do just that. What they do not say inside their mind, does not exist in their reality. It gives them great control over their thinking, but somewhat slows them down. They tend to be very meticulous with detail and great with words. They make good lawyers, accountants because it is easier for them to deal with words and sentences that are too dry and complex to the other people. And when I try to proofread my texts I go precisely in this completely verbal mode. Otherwise, I just don't see the text I'm reading, I see the images this text creates in my mind.
I hope I clarifies this a little bit. And as you can see there can be a description of wordless thinking. How good a description it is for you to judge.