Imagine an elephant. What happens inside your mind? As you processed the previous sentence, you might have visualized the animal, or you may have heard your inner voice utter the word. Some of you may have even experienced a sudden emotional response—happiness, sadness, or perhaps even fear—arising from the mental imagery of this admittedly large herbivore. Thought is tricky. It is, by and large, a universal experience, yet at the same time, innately subjective. No two people think identically. However, there are a few general cognitive patterns common to us all. For instance, most people fall…