What is Thinking?

I believe that thinking is, at its most simplistic, where an individual, in reaction to a range of stimuli, starts a process that modifies or strengthens their world view, beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and behaviours. 

(NB: World view is how I see myself in terms of the immediate and wider world. It includes my knowledge and understanding that are shaped by a combination of my culture and experiences)

      Some other definitions are:

• The process of using your mind to consider something carefully; "thinking always made him frown"; "she paused for thought"
  (wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)

   

• Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. Concepts akin to thought are sentience, consciousness, idea, and imagination.
  (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking)

   

• Thinking is an internal mental process that uses information as input, integrates that information into previous learned material and the result may be knowledge or may be nothing. Problem solving, planning, information integration, and analysis are four kinds of thinking.
  (home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/defin1.htm)

   

• Cognition, mental action or activity, mental viewing; see "Recognition."
  (miriams-well.org/Glossary/)

   

• As used here, thinking refers to low-amplitude verbal operant action, generally subvocal speaking; an "inner" response or chain of responses.
  (members.aol.com/JohnEshleman/glossary.html)