Do you think in pictures?

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Thinking in words constantly would make you excel with them for sure. Like practising something, the more you do it, the better you get. I also bet many word-based thinkers are multilingual. While I, have enough difficulties in the only language I know, can't imagine picking up another one. It is hard to think of the words when multitudes of thoughts are running through my head in the form of images. Many of these images are linked with words, but words play much less of a role in my mind than they do yours.

 

[Simply a Bibliophile]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

I'm sorry for the missing accents: my keyboard is English & I can't find where the accents are hiding. I know they're in here somewhere, but where?!?

Do you have an apple or a PC, Soup? I know that in a Mac you can open up a little window that works in all applications in Edit>Special Characters, and you can put in the accents like that. In a PC, it's more complicated, but there are certain keys you can press...

Typing French Accents in Windows with ALT codes Here's a link that has the different codes. They're a little hard to memorize, unfortunately. I want to buy Mountain Lion for my Mac, because you can just press and hold down any key and it will give you the accents, including umlauts and essets for when you're typing in German (IF you're typing in German).

 

[Soup]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Thanks, Bibliophile! I have an old heavy Dell Inspiron 630M. A real dinosaur in laptop terms but I've grown attached to its quirky personality & can't bring myself to replace it with an ipad. It is dramatic & moody & sometimes snippy & petty (hybernating for no apparent reason, suddenly breathing heavily...sending me places I didn't ask to go to)

ChristianT simply types his posts in Windows. That's a good idea too & I have no rational excuse for not having done that.

@ Deno: We picture thinkers can learn to be good at words & writing too. It didn't come naturally to me & I learned about writing & words by exposure from an early age & by literally collecting them. I learned to use them the way an apprentice learns to properly handle tools, becoming more adept & professional with practice.

This method has several advantages: those who learn & think in words naturally, learn simply by hearing those around them & from reading newspapers & magazines etc. The oral skills are learned primarily at home. The pitfall is that unless your parents are very articulate language users, these speakers internalize a series of erroneous speech patterns that haunt them into adulthood. People say nucular when they mean nuclear. they say 'I could care less' when they mean 'I couldn't care less' they say 'contiguous' when they mean 'contentious'.

When language is learned more deliberately, it is learned more precisely. Temple Grandin is a good example of an Autie who did this as was Einstein. He learned several languages & was very fluent in all of them despite having typical spectrum wiring that wasn't designed ideally for that. I learned using grammar books, drills & practice, composition & dictation etc. In the long run, many picture thinkers learn to master the mysteries of speech, language & vocabulary PLUS we still get to keep & cultivate our picture thinking skills so all is not gloom & doom for a picture-thinking Aspie in a wordy world.

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Of course we are still able to pick up new languages and excel in our language (the brain can pick anything up with practice), But Language is much easier of a thing to grasp for word-based thinkers. They are constantly using words to explain everything, all that practice adds up. As opposed to me ( a picture-based thinker), because when I think of something, often an image will appear not accompanied by any words, and so I will have lots of difficulty coming up with the word. For example, I will look at a ketchup bottle on the other side of the table at diner, and I will be unable to bring out the word 'ketchup' so I have asked to pass the 'red stuff'.. Word-thinkers would not have the same problem, thus making language(speach and writing) much more naturally fluent.

 

[Soup]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

That's true too. They will probably have better word recall since we tend to picture think. We become like people very fluent in a 2nd language. Picture think language will always flow more fluidly for us.

 

[Cerulean]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

I have found it very useful in learning sign language though, being both visual and motor skills.

 

[Soup]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

I wish I could do that like you, Cerulean: I can't seem to reverse the signs I'm being shown & do different ones simultaneously with both hands.

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Christian, how is your memory? When you remember a situation it all comes to you as words? like a story?
And how are you with directions? and remembering where you are and where you have to go? As in your sense of direction.

 

[Christian T]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

I suppose it is like a story, with a series of events being stored in my mind, but there's also a smattering of clear images thrown in as well, like illustrations.

I must say that my sense of direction is horrible. I'd be terrible at filling out any sort of map, even of my own neighbourhood, or giving directions. I usually get around by familiarising myself with the things I should be seeing at ground level.
When it comes to concepts, I'm much better with words, but with physical locations, I really do need a picture. I can never comprehend instructions like: raise your lower leg so that it is adjacent to the wall and directly above the top left-hand corner of the box facing outwards - or something equally convoluted. In those instances, I'd much rather just see what I'm supposed to be doing, but even then I often have difficulty replicating it.
My motor dyspraxia no doubt has a hand in all of this.

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

but there's also a smattering of clear images thrown in as well, like illustrations.

Thanks for all the great answers, I am extremely curious about this. When you said this ^ what do you mean by smattering of clear images?

 

[Christian T]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

No worries, Deno, they're great questions. I meant that I might have 2 or 3 clear images of key points of the memory to work with - I suppose it would be more like a storyboard then, if that helps. I don't have mental film clips, just a few frames.

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

So for memories you have a few frames (images) to reference off of? are there reference frames related to every memory? or just some? is there a set amount, or is it hard to tell how many there are?

 

[Christian T]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

The images are present in every memory, and usually form the basis for recounting the event, unless it's a story I've already recounted, then I'll store it in my mind more as a speech, with the images still there, but not really needed.

 

[Christian T]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Woops - there's usually about 5 images there.

 

[fjord]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Very interesting.
I would definitely say I think in pictures. I can't really imagine thinking in words? However, proper nouns usually appear in my mind as an image of the word, and it's in color. I have a hard time remembering a person's name until I know how it's spelled. Then whatever color a person's name is kind of extends to the person itself. The letter colors come from a toy I had as a kid with plastic letters, colored in a 6-color sequence. I guess that's a strong association!

Beyond that, though, I would describe my thinking as a series of fleeting impressions associated with one another. Maybe there's a distinction between concrete thinking (pictures) and the not-quite-thoughts which are associated impressions?

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

The images are present in every memory, and usually form the basis for recounting the event, unless it's a story I've already recounted, then I'll store it in my mind more as a speech, with the images still there, but not really needed.

Incredible. So this means that 'your brain is incapable of making images' is not the case. Your brain can make images, but makes very few. I'm assuming you cant think of one of those images and manipulate it with your mind? the image is rather Fixed. Right?

Your brain probably has very few connections from (slight assumption here) occipital lobe area to the parts of the brain which has consciousness and so memory encoding. So your brain memorizes images less, probably because the brain finds it easier to work with words due to the lack of these types of connections, or the excess of connections that are responsible for conscious though of words.

Very interesting.
I would definitely say I think in pictures. I can't really imagine thinking in words? However, proper nouns usually appear in my mind as an image of the word, and it's in color. I have a hard time remembering a person's name until I know how it's spelled. Then whatever color a person's name is kind of extends to the person itself. The letter colors come from a toy I had as a kid with plastic letters, colored in a 6-color sequence. I guess that's a strong association!

Beyond that, though, I would describe my thinking as a series of fleeting impressions associated with one another. Maybe there's a distinction between concrete thinking (pictures) and the not-quite-thoughts which are associated impressions?

Yes, picture based thinkers can create images at will, easily. So creating words in our minds eye is not a problem, and I understand how you would associate words with colours. I think 'impressions' are vague thoughts, so unconscious circuits in the brain that fire, that stimulate the consciousness lightly. 'Images' are concrete thoughts, more conscious thoughts, higher levels of attention are required and dedicated to creating images than required to create impressions. Many word based thinkers brains it seems, are not incapable of creating images, but find words more reliable and easier to work with, most likely due to specific connections in the language circuits of the brain.

 

[Christian T]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Incredible. So this means that 'your brain is incapable of making images' is not the case. Your brain can make images, but makes very few. I'm assuming you cant think of one of those images and manipulate it with your mind? the image is rather Fixed. Right?

Your brain probably has very few connections from (slight assumption here) occipital lobe area to the parts of the brain which has consciousness and so memory encoding. So your brain memorizes images less, probably because the brain finds it easier to work with words due to the lack of these types of connections, or the excess of connections that are responsible for conscious though of words.

My recalled images are very fixed indeed, but the ones I draw up from imagination are very pliable.

That psychoanalysis about the occipital lobe does seem very reasonable to me.

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

but the ones I draw up from imagination are very pliable.

Can you expand on this?

 

[Christian T]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Okay, I'll try elaborating. It basically means that I can change details like people's hair colour, the furniture, the weather or the landscape if I've built the mental image from scratch, and it's not a memory.

 

[Deno]

Re: Do you think in pictures or words?

Oh, well this means you Can think in pictures. You are able to image/picture things in your minds eye really. But you dominantly think in words?
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