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Language is not essential for the cognitive processes that underlie thought

(www.scientificamerican.com)
549 points orcul | 1 comments | 17 Oct 24 12:10 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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fjfaase ◴[19 Oct 24 21:56 UTC] No.41891068[source]▶
As some who has a dis-harmonic intelligence profile, this has been obvious for a very long time. In the family of my mother there are several individuals struggling with language while excelling in the field of exact sciences. I very strongly suspect that my non-verbal (performal) IQ is much higher (around 130) than my verbal IQ (around 100). I have struggled my whole life to express my ideas with language. I consider myself an abstract visual thinker. I do not think in pictures, but in abstract structures. During my life, I have met several people, especially among software engineers, who seem to be similar to me. I also feel that people who are strong verbal thinkers have the greatest resistance against idea that language is not essential for higher cognitive processes.
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1. makeitdouble ◴[20 Oct 24 01:16 UTC] No.41892129[source]▶
I think people who can manipulate complex structures but struggle with language tend to see language in a more formal way, putting more effort into understanding its structure and inner working.

Basically what to most people is so obvious that it becomes transparent ("air") isn't to us, which apparently is an incredible gift for becoming a language researcher. Or a programmer.