Do you think in pictures?

[Shevek]

When reading, I usually skip over place descriptions. When writing on technical subjects, I often tell how to draw your own sketch, but I don't think 1% of readers bother. Even when I provide illustrations, it seems that people usually just take 10% of the information and run elsewhere with it, guided by their own preconceptions. I once watched a guy wreck his company project by getting a message backward. I'd even tried asking for a hundred bucks so he'd pay attention, and he said he couldn't afford it.

 

[mcampos75]

Completely. I always thought everybody else did it too. But I confess that sometimes it's a bit overhelming due to the fact that our Aspies minds also make lots of associations. So, it feels like a frigging google pulling out all the references about the very thing we are thinking about at once.

Few days ago my 13 year old daughter asked me if I would like some sweet corn and I laughed . She asked me why I was laughing and I had to tell her that dozens of images of corn came up to my mind and one of them was one from a very old Mikey, Donald and goofy cartoon (called "three for breakfast", i believe) in which they eat corn as if they were using a typing machine (back and forth)

. She goes ; " really? Did you think all of this that quick?". I said "yes, it's kind of an automatic thing" . Then, she asks : "so?". I reply : "so, thats how it is for me". She goes: "no, so..do you want it or not? " ..and I go "want what?"...."Coooorrrn"...

LOL.. I totally forgot about it ...that's why sometimes it can be overhelmingly distractive..

Do anyone relate to this?

 

[Alexandria]

But I confess that sometimes it's a bit overhelming due to the fact that our Aspies minds also make lots of associations. So, it feels like a frigging google pulling out all the references about the very thing we are thinking about at once.

Do anyone relate to this?

Yes. But usually only when I am actively engaged in thinking about something and am experiencing a learning curve. Then all the data rushes in and begins to (re)arrange itself - almost simultaneously. Certainly too quickly for the brain to consciously keep up with - that moment when all other variables that do not fit correctly all fall away to leave only those that combine to provide answer/s to the question concerned.

The process is there in my brain at other times of course - but I think I have come into the practice of being able to filter (engagement with) the process in order of importance - sometimes I can engage quite happily on automatic for awhile whilst the process runs quietly in the background until it dies away. (It doesn't take long...mere moments).

All that being said, one area where it can overwhelm me completely is if I am emotionally 'triggered'. I am most unreasonable at such times and have to remove myself from the situation in order to process all those thoughts & feelings - without distraction of any kind. Then it is a matter of re-resolving all those memories and gently placing them back into their respective boxes in my mind. I think perhaps being hurt can be akin to losing a little of the self and that a micro-grieving process ensues. They say that time heals all things - it hasn't, for me - yet it has taught me ways and means to navigate, mindfully, between the chasms of personal despair and the soaring heights of personal peace and the realisation of joyfulness, I think...

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I'm not surprised by the results so far, I do not think in pictures but rather concepts not really pictures in conventional way, Some times analogies for a bit of a picture I can sort of see but blurry. I have no real way to describe how I thing the closest analogy is pictures. I imagine some expert has a fancy Latin word for it.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Completely. I always thought everybody else did it too. But I confess that sometimes it's a bit overhelming due to the fact that our Aspies minds also make lots of associations. So, it feels like a frigging google pulling out all the references about the very thing we are thinking about at once.

Few days ago my 13 year old daughter asked me if I would like some sweet corn and I laughed . She asked me why I was laughing and I had to tell her that dozens of images of corn came up to my mind and one of them was one from a very old Mikey, Donald and goofy cartoon (called "three for breakfast", i believe) in which they eat corn as if they were using a typing machine (back and forth)

. She goes ; " really? Did you think all of this that quick?". I said "yes, it's kind of an automatic thing" . Then, she asks : "so?". I reply : "so, thats how it is for me". She goes: "no, so..do you want it or not? " ..and I go "want what?"...."Coooorrrn"...

LOL.. I totally forgot about it ...that's why sometimes it can be overhelmingly distractive..

Do anyone relate to this?

Yes sort of how I do it, in conversation I would drive others nuts so many associations. My sons get me, not their girl friends. I must seem weird to them. makes it had to answer tests like multiple choice.Ggives the impression we are dummer, then we actually are confusing other's, Why I like this forum.

 

[Neytiri]

I use words to talk with myself, but I think in systems.

So when I think in an "aeroplane" I see how the airflow is bend down, I see the lifting force and the draft, I see the motor posibilities, the loss of pressure at the end of the wings, how the air curves into vortex, how the water condensates creating clouds, ...

When I think in "water" I see the water cicle, their inner forces that make it reach their minimum density at 4 Celsius, how it solves salt, the way ice crystals do form, its way to create bridges under high voltage or how its created in a combustion motor.

As I focus in a certain aspect of reality, the driving forces and relations of that thing apears. Thats what makes learning so interesting to me, it adds new relations and conect things.

I think its the first time I feel confident to tell others how my mind works.

Thanks for asking.

I’m glad that you mentioned this. I think in pictures too but I also can see the words, but in a different way, like if I took a picture of the paragraph and I can see the whole text. I would explain it like this, I have cubes in my brain where I can scroll to the left (figuratively speaking ) and I can come back to it. If I choose one memory I remember details of that day, weather, my feelings at the moment and more (in pictures or films) So funny because I forget where I left my cellphone or glasses constantly Thank you for sharing this and I agree that you are very smart.

 

[Jeepcarpenter]

Completely. I always thought everybody else did it too. But I confess that sometimes it's a bit overhelming due to the fact that our Aspies minds also make lots of associations. So, it feels like a frigging google pulling out all the references about the very thing we are thinking about at once.

Few days ago my 13 year old daughter asked me if I would like some sweet corn and I laughed . She asked me why I was laughing and I had to tell her that dozens of images of corn came up to my mind and one of them was one from a very old Mikey, Donald and goofy cartoon (called "three for breakfast", i believe) in which they eat corn as if they were using a typing machine (back and forth)

. She goes ; " really? Did you think all of this that quick?". I said "yes, it's kind of an automatic thing" . Then, she asks : "so?". I reply : "so, thats how it is for me". She goes: "no, so..do you want it or not? " ..and I go "want what?"...."Coooorrrn"...

LOL.. I totally forgot about it ...that's why sometimes it can be overhelmingly distractive..

Do anyone relate to this?

Entirely.. that exact cartoon coming up for instances as well, lol.

 

[Outdated]

An interesting topic here. I don't necessarily think in words or pictures, more a constant shifting of concepts. As a few others described here, trying to explain to people exactly how thoughts go through my mind seems impossible.

I was never arty, I also have very poor facial recognition and memory of faces. I can remember strings of code and numbers without even trying. I am however able to visualize objects in full 3D and rotate those objects in order to study shape and fit. Handy when trying to access machine parts that are hidden from view, I could "see" where my hand was reaching and what I was doing.

I always had a strange relationship with numbers, and one particularly good maths teacher got me to try a new exercise one time, he would rapid fire questions at me and he didn't want a correct answer, he wanted a ball park figure, an estimate. This was a very difficult thing for me to learn, but ever since then I have been able to deal with numbers on sliding scales of probability as well as absolutes.

 

[MildredHubble]

I can think in 3D visualisations too of machines etc that I understand well. But I'm not sure how to accurately describe it as it's more like a concept I can turn into something visual. Like I can picture a car engine in motion and kinda move it, see it in motion.

The weird thing is I kinda do think in pictures but it's more like visual memories. I have a really hard time dreaming up something novel. All I see is black. But think of a beach I've been on, now that comes quite easy.

The problem is that I've had experiences with therapists where they ask me to visualise or imagine a beach for example. I can't do this, but I can remember a beach that I've been on. So I do that.

The problem with this is that I may have loads of different associations with a specific beach, they are then cross referenced with lots of other associations. So I'm never more than a hop skip and a jump from something I would rather not think about.

So these (in my opinion) silly little "mindfulness" exercises don't work on my particular brain. Rather being relaxing, it ends up being a can of worms.

 

[Duna]

I think in gists and concepts.

 

[Shevek]

I always had a strange relationship with numbers, and one particularly good maths teacher got me to try a new exercise one time, he would rapid fire questions at me and he didn't want a correct answer, he wanted a ball park figure, an estimate. This was a very difficult thing for me to learn, but ever since then I have been able to deal with numbers on sliding scales of probability as well as absolutes.

One time, I just needed a hole at right angles to a surface, so I asked a machinist to drill a block of steel near the middle. He couldn't do it. He had to measure, and hit the exact center.
When I went to work in a sign shop, I made every sign to exact dimensions. After a few weeks, I realized that they didn't have to fit anything, and that missing the width of a saw cut would not matter, and save a lot of wood.

 

[shybuck]

Shevek, Shevek!

Over here!

I thought an entire poem in pictures, which while seeing the pictures and focusing on a poem, my brain put words into pictures. It was beautiful.

You should mess around with it.

I think mainly with my conscious mind, I hear my voice in my head and it reacts. These are my thoughts. But I can ask myself, "what kind of animal is grandma?" and get a vague picture of a meowing kitten, which is thought because I know some basic psychology and can see why is think that.

I have to sign up for low income housing this week, as I am flying the coop. A den of my own. Great minds think alike, and the only great minds that don't think, don't exist..

We are all Great.

Like the Lord.

This post made me happy!

 

[Zirk]

I can think in 3D visualisations too of machines etc that I understand well. But I'm not sure how to accurately describe it as it's more like a concept I can turn into something visual. Like I can picture a car engine in motion and kinda move it, see it in motion.

The weird thing is I kinda do think in pictures but it's more like visual memories. I have a really hard time dreaming up something novel. All I see is black. But think of a beach I've been on, now that comes quite easy.

The problem is that I've had experiences with therapists where they ask me to visualise or imagine a beach for example. I can't do this, but I can remember a beach that I've been on. So I do that.

The problem with this is that I may have loads of different associations with a specific beach, they are then cross referenced with lots of other associations. So I'm never more than a hop skip and a jump from something I would rather not think about.

So these (in my opinion) silly little "mindfulness" exercises don't work on my particular brain. Rather being relaxing, it ends up being a can of worms.

Yeah I too have a copycat brain. The great visualizer of dated memories. l can only think up already experienced or visited locations.

Also my brain seems to be stuck in old patterns for a longer time than is the case with neurotypical people. Learning new behavior, emotions and words can be delayed, as the 'new' gets rerouted alongside the 'old'.

My brain has a very accurate scan of the world as it was two years ago, but the current world takes more time to 'load correctly' unto my mind.

Although being in the present using mindfulness works fine, if you represent it as an arrow slowly ticking forward, and you are that arrow, instead of you are somewhere in the past or the future.
So I think in colours and the other senses and in 3D.

 

[Shevek]

Nicola Tesla could build a machine in his head, run it, and then check for wear.
There is a surprisingly wide range of weight for a given horsepower with internal combustion. I suspect that the light but reliable ones distort under load and heat in ways that don't upset the bearing alignment much. Seeing that is another skill.
Kelly Johnson, the leader of the Lockheed "Skunk Works" was said to be able to see air flow. When a new test was going to be run, he would usually be able to guess the result within 1%.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I like visualizing how quantum mechanics works visualizing the statistical nature of it and how it relates
to other things like how us Apies are distributed in the population this ability really helped during my colour matching days.

 

[Outdated]

My brain has a very accurate scan of the world as it was two years ago, but the current world takes more time to 'load correctly' unto my mind.

This is me too in some ways. It's hard to invent an answer when people ask me how I feel, I won't know that until in a few day's time. I also often don't notice if I'm sick, but for some reason I notice my recovery and it's only then that I realise I must have had a cold or something.

 

[MildredHubble]

I like visualizing how quantum mechanics works visualizing the statistical nature of it and how it relates
to other things like how us Apies are distributed in the population this ability really helped during my colour matching days.

Wow! I wish I could visualise Quantum Mechanics! The closest I can get is the waveform function. For some reason waveforms just click with me. In sound synthesis/signal processing you can do so many cool things with phase cancellation. I've turned monaural recordings into 5.1 surround sound for example and it's so amazing when you can perceive depth and direction in the soundstage. And all it is, is the same audio but with its phase shifted in different quantities. It's an illusion of course, but it's very convincing.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

once you realize that absolute length cannot exist, ever think else just follows through.

 

[Laughingowl1975]

Both, I usually think with my internal monolouge but I see pictures as well often along with sound or music.

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

my favorite trick is to keep maps in my head keeps me from getting lost.