how do deaf people think
 

I have to write an essay on this, and I just want to get some ideas going. Most everybody thinks in "spoken" words. How does a deaf person, who has never heard a word, think?

I would think that if the person wwere born deaf, and never subjected to language, that it would pretty much be an emotional thing. Like, you would think "i need to go to the store", where a deaf person would get the feeling of going to the store. So, I guess there might be a visual component as well. Just my thoughts.

Damn...that's a good question.

When it comes to blind people they can feel shapes and visualize the world from that POV. So it's not quite the same thing.

I would imagine that when it comes to deaf people they might "see" the written word in much the same way you and I hear the word.

Maybe we can get an informed opinion deaf person on the TFP.

That is a good question! I could not come up with anything using my limited intellectual ability. So I checked google.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031226.html

I doubt that the straightdope would work as a source, but that gives you an idea at least.

well, I'm not completely deaf, but I tend to think or see things like a book - I love lists because I see the words and that's how I think. Completely deaf people, and myself as well, can still feel how words are pronounced by putting a hand on the vocal cords; part of the reason why mine and other's speech sounds funny to people is because we're mimicing the feeling, but can't actually hear whether what we're doing is actually correct or not.

fascinating...

good insights here.

thanks, all.

Isn't most thought in the form of concepts?

Thanks for your explaination. I have also wondered if people who are blind since birth have any concept of color and lightness or darkness. I imagine it would be very difficult to describe the color red to someone who has never seen colors or describe the sound of a flute to someone who has never heard sounds.

This was a very interesting question.

Wow that is one mind blowing question. People usually think by "hearing" voices in their head...wonder if that would be absent in a deaf person.

Perhaps a deaf person would use images to associate with certain things. For example, if he is hungry he will think of an image of .. say a fruit. This could allow a deaf person to "think."

But what if a person is both deaf and blind?

How about deaf and blind and insensitive to touch?

Helen Keller wrote a book outlining her thought processes as a child. She thought mostly in emotions until she was taught sign language. You should find this book, and use it as a source.

wow this is interesting. I would love to hear (sorry for the pun) from more deaf folks to get their input.

They'd likely either think in sign language or text. There have been studies done on this. The idea behind thinking is that it is based in language, so whichever way they most closely associate with language would be it. That's just people born deaf. If you become deaf, you'd probably still think auditorily.

Tropple: It's concepts, but you perceive those concepts through some sort of inner monologue, which is normally you "talking" to yourself.

tropple, I'd say "language" - that's how we conceive of things - i.e. conceptualize

language can be many things besides "sounds"

Amature psionics communities have the concept "pure thought" - a process in the brain which is faster, better, and more effecient than thinking in any spoken or written language, and can (in theory) be used to comminicate directly with ones own subconscious mind (as the subconscious doesnt speak any language). I imagine this idea is similar to, or the same as "thinking in emotions" described earlier.

interesting topic.

i tend to do most of my learning visually, and have an uncanny ability to recall where on a page i read something. years later, i can flip back, and see on the page where it would be. as a consequence, much of my thinking is done visually as well...

thinking style is likely to be a combination of some natural proclivity to certain kinds of learning, and mixed with that persons' experience of language.

this also reminds me of some really, really bad helen keller jokes.

Is this the same as " if a tree falls in a forest does it make any sound"?

Do french speaking people "hear" voices in their head in french or in some electro connected energy that they interpret as french language?

By the way NOAHFOR, where in your head did you conceptualise this question?

Hmm... I must be an oddball. The thinking I seem to do in words is when I write.

I am not deaf and I don't think I think all that much in spoken words. It just seems that way when I have to write it down or explain what I'm thinking to someone else.

Additionally, how do blind people visualize what's outside of their arm's length?

Ask a deaf person for a definitave answer, my guess is that there would still be an inner monolouge going on (if this is what you mean by think)

How to seeing people visualize what's outside your line of sight?

the answer to both those questions is memory, a blind person can usually remember where everything is, and if they didnt know a certain area, im sure it would just be a factor of not knowing whats there. same thing with a seeing person

Now back to the topic at hand, im sure deaf people just visualize everything in thier head

It's not hard to understand how a deaf person can think with pictures and abstractions. I'm not deaf but, since I was a child, I also thought with pictures and abstractions instead of words.
I was a strange kid who drew constantly on everything, but I often spoke non sequiturs or not at all. It was a struggle to communicate concrete thoughts using spoken language - even though I didn't have problems with grammar or reading. I just didn't relate to spoken word as I did with pictures and symbols. I still think with pictures, but have developed enough verbal skill to carry on a sensible conversation in public.
I have learned I was probably born with a form of "synesthesia." Numbers carried strong color associations for me, for example. I just learned to cope with it.

I generally do not think in words. I would describe it simply as letting the ideas and concepts flow about unbound by words. Not sure how to better explain it than that unfortunetly.

well my mind has been blown for the day. I will spend the rest of it trying to think without using words in my head, I don't know if this is possible, but I suppose it would be something like thinking with your feelings alone.

Think about what it would feel like to fly, soaring through the open air.

If you didn't write a narration, you did it -- you thought without using words.

Stand 3' away from a wall. Now throw a ball at the wall as hard as you can. Try to catch it. When you tried to catch the ball, did you hear words in your head?

Look at a picture - Do you feel, or do you hear words?
http://radified.com/911/JPEGs/911_wtc_crumble.jpg

Play a song on your favorite instrument. Paint a picture. Ski off a cornice. Have sex. Pound nails. Write a mathematical proof. Look for lost car keys. Do you hear words in your head?

I rarely hear words when I think. When I write, words just come out. I don't hear them first. When I speak it is the same way. Numbers are shapes that fit together to make other numbers. Actions happen without words.