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From: biep@cs.vu.nl (J. A. "Biep" Durieux)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.ai
Subject: Language-free thinking (was: language, thought, and culture)
Summary: Spatial thinking
Keywords: language, thought, and culture
Message-ID: <1002@klipper.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 8 Mar 88 09:40:28 GMT
References: <44@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> <2894@pbhyf.UUCP>
Reply-To: biep@cs.vu.nl (J. A. "Biep" Durieux)
Organization: VU Informatica, Amsterdam
Lines: 21

In article <2894@pbhyf.UUCP> rob@pbhyf.UUCP (Rob Bernardo) writes:
>In article <44@gollum.Columbia.NCR.COM> rolandi@gollum.UUCP (Walter Rolandi) writes:
>+What sort of thinking do people typically do that does not involve language?
>
>I wouldn't know how to call the sorts of thinking I do which do not involve
>language. Language does not give me very good ways of labeling them, so 
>they're hard to talk about.

The standard example of non-linguistic problem solving is the following
(forgive me my English):

Suppose a dog carrying a stick enters a fence of inter-spaced vertical
poles. How does he get through the fence?

Almost everybody solves this visually, even if the problem is given
verbally. I suppose most spacial problems (moving the piano to the
second floor..) fall in the category you ask for.
-- 
						Biep.  (biep@cs.vu.nl via mcvax)
	As the NSA is now skipping last lines of articles,
	let's discuss our anti-american conspiracy over here.