Do you think in pictures?

[Lady Lucifer]

Honestly, I don't. I think in words/voices. I always found it weird whenever I'd read something that relates to autism and it would say that one of the traits is "thinking in pictures" and I'd be like "I don't...."

I mean I can think in pictures, when asked to. (i.e: meditation, though excersizes) But my general thought process is in words.

 

[Gummi27]

I think in pictures, yes - and movements, with the words of what people are saying over top of it sometimes, I think in sounds, flavors, colors and texture.

(Remember aspies are not imaginative and creative.)
.

However, I'm a bit confused at this statement, almost kind of panicking. I'm extremely imaginative and creative and (I thought...) many of my Aspie friends are.

Anyway. PICTURE BRAIN

 

[Sabrina]

I do and until recently I thought everybody did. If I am adding two numbers in my head I see the numbers. If I am thinking about a concept like justice I see an image of a stern looking king from ancient Greece, godlike with a beard and sitting on a throne. That may seem highly imaginative but actually I am just recalling an image of justice I once saw in a church. (Remember aspies are not imaginative and creative.)

Anyway the idea of thinking in words sounds boring and weird to me. Now I have read that this causes problems for people in school. It never caused me any problems reading or taking notes in class.

This thinking in pictures thing seems to me like one of the big pluses of being an aspie.

I think in words, but also in pictures.
I can see the images while I hear them or read them. Maybe that’s the reason reading fiction is easy for me, I can imagine, or see, what is written, very easily.

 

[Omnik]

I do and until recently I thought everybody did. If I am adding two numbers in my head I see the numbers. If I am thinking about a concept like justice I see an image of a stern looking king from ancient Greece, godlike with a beard and sitting on a throne. That may seem highly imaginative but actually I am just recalling an image of justice I once saw in a church. (Remember aspies are not imaginative and creative.)

Anyway the idea of thinking in words sounds boring and weird to me. Now I have read that this causes problems for people in school. It never caused me any problems reading or taking notes in class.

This thinking in pictures thing seems to me like one of the big pluses of being an aspie.

pictures are not my variant at all

 

[Lemongrab]

I was surprised when I first heard people talking about an "internal dialogue ". About 5 years later I tuned in to it and was shocked by this fact.......I think in words.

 

[inkfingers]

I am a visual thinker, but I disagree with your notion that aspies are unimaginative and not creative. I am very creative and imaginative. I like to lie in bed and daydream. I will make up stories in my head, and I can see them play out like a movie. It is actually very entertaining and relaxing. I like to make myself be the center of my fantasy, and I can hear (in my head) what characters are saying, and I can see what I am doing and where I am and what is happening. It is like having virtual reality for free!

 

[inkfingers]

I have an interesting question does anyone else have a problem reading physical social cues because you do not trust if
the person is being honest or lying. I have known alot of people that could give one impression while meaning the complete opposite.
Seeming very happy while really being pissed off or nice and friendly while planning to stab you in the back.
Going with what I see or trusting my gut.
I only take them at face value when I really trust them.:bounce:

I can read social cues maybe 20 or 30% of the time. Otherwise, I am uncertain and clueless. I think that it is easier to completely disregard social cues and simply listen to what the person is saying. Take time to see if the person is trustworthy or not.

 

[inkfingers]

I think in pictures and I assumed everyone did until a conversation I had with Nitro on another thread.

When I read a book its more like watching a film as I see the characters an action instantly in my mind. All my recall is image based too, and having had a few hours to mull it over I realise the'speciality' part is my spacial awareness. I drive trucks and fly planes, never get lost and have always 'seen' an overlay of info on the views around me. Thanks to Nitro I'm now reading up on Temple's work.

Now I wonder what it is like to read a book and not think in pictures. How boring it must be! How on earth can anyone imagine the story if they can't see it?

 

[SageRose]

I think in pictures, I learn best with pictures, I remember things that are based on pictures and visual stuff, I even prefer personality quizzes that are mostly or entirely pictures. I'm very visual, I don't even know what it would be like not thinking in pictures.

 

[Judge]

I still find it funny that years ago when I was a website designer for a software gaming company, the game producers couldn't keep up with my ideas for a website's metaphorical interface for a particular game. I'd go on and on about it, and they'd always stop me and say, "Fine, just give us a comp". Meaning they needed a brief graphic image of what I was talking about.

I could always see things in my head so easily while everyone else around me could not. Always left me puzzled.

 

[Daydreamer]

I often think visually, with random spurts of dialogue thrown in there. When I sit down to write a story, I imagine myself in the scene (often switching between first person perspective and then a third person shot of everyone). I like to think about different angles, so I imagine myself as the character, take in what they see, and then look down on the scene from a bird's eye view. As well as visual information, I imagine the different smells, sounds and textures/how things would feel in that environment. I switch between different characters as well if I find it necessary.

For a long time I was under the impression that almost everyone thought this way, in as much detail as I do. It wasn't until I learnt about Aphantasia that I realised this wasn't the case. Hyperphantasia is the opposite of Aphantasia, and it is something which I have. When I visualise something from memory, I remember a lot of small details such as the freckles on someone's face or where the cracks were on a certain wall.

I've had times in my life where people have asked me "Were you there when you wrote this?" or "Did you visit that place recently?" and they've been quite shocked when I replied no.

" Wait what? How? It seems so real! When I read it, well it felt like I was there...how did you? What? "

These kind of puzzled reactions tended to leave me confused, because I didn't understand how the people asking me about it couldn't seem to comprehend such things.

Similarly, I sometimes draw (and occasionally doodle aimlessly) whatever I'm visualising. I've had people ask me what reference images I used, or ask to see my references, only for me to give the rather disappointing news that I was just going from memory and/or imagination.

"Ah, I thought you'd found a good website or something that I could take inspiration from, well there goes my plans".

On the odd occasion I've made digital 3D Models before and based them on an image in my mind out of boredom. However, this only really works with items and scenes that I'm incredibly familiar with. I could easily draw a Caviller King Charles Spaniel from a visual thought, but not a car engine because I don't know much about those.

Reference images do sometimes come in handy though, now that I've learnt more about how to properly draw humans my drawings look less primitive. Previously I had a tendency to draw people too Neanderthal looking when it came to drawing faces.

 

[Daydreamer]

However, I have poor visualisation skills when it comes to numbers. I can conceptualise entire Worlds in my mind, but if you ask me to imagine fifteen boxes then I'm going to have a difficult time. Which may seem odd, I know. This is because my mind finds it hard to estimate. I lack a sense of numbers...if you were to ask me how many were in my class, and I did not know, then a quick glance at my classmates would not tell me much. The guess would seem random- "Oh there's about twenty or thirty there, somewhere in that numerical area".

As a result, if given the task to imagine fifteen boxes then my mind would imagine a random amount and perhaps add some question marks in there. I find mental maths to be quite challenging, I can't keep track of what numbers I have.

So if I try to imagine long addition in my mind like this:

+12
018
=

It'll do weird stuff such as;

+12
018
= 0
1

+12
018
= 0
?

+1?
018
= 0
?

x1?
018
= 0
?

x1?
018
= ?
?

x??
???
= ?
?

21x81= ?

No.

12+81?

No.

12x18?

No.

12+18

Ah yes, that was it. *Starts process again*.

 

[Clueless in Canada]

I honestly don't know. Sometimes I think I do and other times I just can't really get a handle on how I think. I definitely find that visuals help me understand something but I also find that I can work out my thoughts better if I write them or speak them. Certainly I think in pictures when it comes to nouns. If you say banana, I picture a banana. But I can't imagine how else to understand banana.

 

[John M]

In my experience, thinking in pictures is faster than thinking in words. However, I'd like to get to the point where I use neither internally. Before a thought is translated into pictures or words its an actionable thought. Why does the brain have to translate it into something else if I don't need to communicate it to someone?

 

[Aspychata]

l feel connections to words, but l feel like the loner here. l did like to choreograph dancing sets like jazz or ballet when l was younger.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I can think in words as well as pictures, but being able to think in pictures is great since I draw cartoons and stuff. Basically what I do is think of the drawing already fully formed in my head, and then draw it onto paper and hope it turns out as close to the mental image as possible.

 

[Progster]

I often find that the picture of an object I need comes before the word to my mind, and sometimes it takes a while for the word to come to me.

 

[UberScout]

For me its both pictures and sounds or music.

Food: a haunch of meat, or a bowl of rice

Music: A group of rainbow-colored music notes around a treble sign

Video games: A young man raising up a sword that shimmers at the tip of the blade, surrounded by four crystals.

Themes of adventure: A man with a traveler's backpack and gear holding out an unraveled map.

Themes of horror: Two diamond shaped eyes and a wide, jagged grin.

Themes of love and romance: Two small, puffy creatures sitting affectionately with each other with a small heart above them.

Themes dealing with death and loss: A ghost giving off a blank, narrow expression of indifference.

Sleep and Dreams: A wolf curled up on a pile of leaves, emanating a cloud above its head containing my zodiac sign. (Remember: I have a firm belief in spirit animals)

Anger and rage: A scowling face with blank, red eyes reaching an open, burning hand toward a tree surrounded by people stoning an innocent man on his knees.

Resentment: A crystalline wall separating a thin man holding a mask with a wide grin to his face and a hooded figure raising a goblet of blood up to a large snake whose eyes are glowing with rings of blur and turquoise.

Fear: A child balled up against a wall covering her face from three shadowy figures holding crosses behind their backs.

Sadness: A man and a woman sitting in the ruins of a burnt down house.

Stress: Two bloodshot eyes being grabbed by bony, scraggly, multicolored hands.

 

[OrangeRock]

I believe that everyone thinks in pictures. I don't know anyone who doesn't think in pictures.
I believe that people with high functioning autism tend to think in pictures more since they have more active minds.
I think in pictures more because I have more room. I'm not good with social situations and public speaking. Speaking loudly, speaking in variable tones, make non-creepy eye-contact. Instead, I use the space for more thinking and visualization of the topic at-discussion.

 

[bbc-bananasplit]

I believe that everyone thinks in pictures. I don't know anyone who doesn't think in pictures.

You are probably right. Yet, there are some people, who are unable to think in images or to visualize anything in their minds.