What are some cutie marks for understanding?

[Lil Pip 775]

I think comprehension understanding etc are the best because they encompass potentially everything. Granted knowing and doing are two different things. But I figure a brain for a cutie mark is just too um, silly, its an organ for pete's sake lol. Books don't really fit, you don't only learn things through books right. Granted it could imply empathy, the word understanding, but just because you do understand doesn't mean its something you would do explicitly, even if you understand it. Its probably a little too broad of a mark is the issue but I am set on thinking of different visual symbols for this.

[Lisa 5,553]

Light is usually symbolic for knowledge, discovery and understanding. That's why in cartoons and whatever else, artists draw a light bulb above a character's head when they've thought of an idea. You could go with a light bulb, or be more abstract and draw an essence of light.

[Widdershins 9,959]

Well, that's the thing about cutie marks though, isn't it? Could mean anything to somepony else. Like that purple pony about town that has those two dolphins arranged like Holiday's signature there. What's that suppose to mean? That she likes dolphins or swimming? It's all up to interpretation really, no doubt there is some pony out there with a brain cutie mark who might be a brain surgeon or just really smart.

Books could work, after all they kind of do symbolize the learning one gets in their schooling years. That, and they're also basic shapes that could be arranged in any simplistic pattern.

But if you seek to put more of an emphasis on the thought itself rather than the action ensuing from it, well, maybe we ought go a bit more abstract. Thought Bubbles would make a good symbol for that, I suppose. Seem to remember hearing somewhere that cartoonists have their own classification on the types of them too, varying on how their connected to the character and the border around the bubble.