<p>Are thoughts concieved in realtime or are they preprocessed chains ready to be thought or both (depending on the prospective) or am I asking a too generalized question to have any sense ?</p>

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2019-03-26T20:08:41.430Z
This is hard to answer because no-one really knows what a thought is. If you make it narrower, like "a plan of action for catching a ball" you might get more detailed answers! But then it's not clear how well those answers would transfer to things like language or deciding what to eat for dinner. Having said that, you might enjoy "The mind is flat" by Nick Chater. One thing we do know for sure about thoughts is that they're really fast. Chater describes some experiments suggesting that the brain is always improvising, so the answer is probably more down the "real-time" end (but check out the b
steveLangsford
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2019-03-27T03:25:19.833Z
Probably both. Some "thoughts" might be just reproducing information stored long ago, like quoting something. And then there's the mystery of creativity. And of course there are elements stored that make the latter possible, language etc. And regarding speed, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_process_theory#Dual-process_accounts_of_reasoning
got trolled too much this week
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2019-03-28T01:19:57.507Z
Hi, Luca, and welcome to the site. I'm voting to close this question because I'm not sure what you're asking. What exactly do you mean by "a thought"? Thoughts can be simple (e.g. "my arm itches", exceedingly complex (something taking up a lot of 'working memory'), and everything in between. Sometimes the body takes an action before the brain - in a thought - acknowledges a problem (e.g. anything involving spinal reflexes), but mostly I agree with @steveLangsford that most "thoughts" are *real time events*.
anongoodnurse
<cognitive-neuroscience><theoretical-neuroscience><thought><neuropsychology>
Timeframe in which thoughts are concieved
Luca Conin
# Timeframe in which thoughts are concieved

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-26)

Are thoughts concieved in realtime or are they preprocessed chains ready to be thought or both (depending on the prospective) or am I asking a too generalized question to have any sense ?

**Tags:** cognitive-neuroscience, theoretical-neuroscience, thought, neuropsychology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This is hard to answer because no-one really knows what a thought is. If you make it narrower, like "a plan of action for catching a ball" you might get more detailed answers! But then it's not clear how well those answers would transfer to things like language or deciding what to eat for dinner. Having said that, you might enjoy "The mind is flat" by Nick Chater. One thing we do know for sure about thoughts is that they're really fast. Chater describes some experiments suggesting that the brain is always improvising, so the answer is probably more down the "real-time" end (but check out the b  
> **username_2**: Probably both. Some "thoughts" might be just reproducing information stored long ago, like quoting something. And then there's the mystery of creativity. And of course there are elements stored that make the latter possible, language etc. And regarding speed, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_process_theory#Dual-process_accounts_of_reasoning  
> **username_3**: Hi, Luca, and welcome to the site. I'm voting to close this question because I'm not sure what you're asking. What exactly do you mean by "a thought"? Thoughts can be simple (e.g. "my arm itches", exceedingly complex (something taking up a lot of 'working memory'), and everything in between. Sometimes the body takes an action before the brain - in a thought - acknowledges a problem (e.g. anything involving spinal reflexes), but mostly I agree with @username_1 that most "thoughts" are *real time events*.  

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