Visual Thinking

[Nyades]

Recently, mid-conversation I zoned out, which is normal for me. Someone asked what I was thinking about and I realized I was sorting through images of pages I've read before and mental pictures of relevant places I've visited looking for a specific fact. I was wondering if other people think this way as well?

(I also wonder if this is why I do so poorly with verbal instructions and remembering people but easily remember two-dimensional things such as facts I've read, diagrams, and notes I've taken. I also wonder if it's relevant that the things I remember are in black and white.)

I've attempted to look this up but found mixed accounts. It almost seems HFA persons think in 3-dimentional images while Aspies think in 2-dimentional images. I can only speak for myself and I may just be strange.

So, how do you think and/or recall information?

 

[OutsideIn]

This is really interesting. I'm fascinated by the idea of thinking in pictures but I don't think I've really experienced it. The only thing close would be that sometimes when I'm taking an exam, I can see the pages of notes in my notebook and find relevant answers from my notes by visualizing them.

I tend to think/recall information in patterns. Facts get stored in webs that are connected by some sort of thread and sometimes I'll have to make a few hops around the web, using the connector threads, before I can get to the right piece of information, sort of like jumping on stones to cross a river.

 

[WildCat]

...

I've attempted to look this up but found mixed accounts. It almost seems HFA persons think in 3-dimentional images while Aspies think in 2-dimentional images. I can only speak for myself and I may just be strange.

...

I've HFA and now that you mention it, you might be on to something here. I cannot recall entire pages of text (and I still don't get how you guys can do that), yet I can navigate my way "mentally" through places I've been or see and even play through entire videos, 2 or 3 dimensions doesn't matter to me. I do remember facts and tidbits of information quite easily, but I'm assuming that's not the same kind of skill we're talking about here is it?

It's a good theory, but it certainly doesn't hold true for everyone. Though, that seems to be the case for myself.

 

[Biblio-Love]

I always considered myself a visual learner, although I certainly can't recall pages of text. If someone gives me verbal instructions, I stop listening. I can't figure it out and certainly won't remember it. For directions, I always need someone to draw a map, even if it is just a few blocks away. I can easily figure out both 3 dimensional and 2 dimensional images. The only way I remember anything is by recalling an image of the event, the cover of a book, or design of a street sign. Come to think of it, I do dream about lists I've made. I'll wake up in the morning, "oh yeah, I have to do such and such." And it is because I just woke up after seeing a picture of the list I made the day before in my dream.

 

[Nyades]

Thanks for the input everyone. Sorry for my delayed response but I've been preoccupied with attempting to decipher recent common conversations when a meaningless exchange is concluded with a small laugh. I seem to lack auditory understanding more than I thought but it's being made evident in the new job. Maybe it's over stimulus but I also watch tv on low volume with captions despite having excellent hearing. But that, I'm sure, belongs in a different thread.
Anyway, it's very helpful to understand how other people think and there must be some sort of concrete correllation undiscovered. Perhaps it's not so much how but to what end.

 

[Margaretha]

I find it easier to remember numbers by writing them down and recalling the image. My memories are visual and auditory with more abstract thoughts strung together as patterns or webs. My visual memories are are always 3 dimensional. There's a lot of space. I can jump in and walk around in them.

 

[Loomis]

I am not sure where this fits in but I frequently have trouble distinguishing East from West and North from South when I am driving. When I am in Minnesota I will see a sign that says exit East and I have to think about it and visualize in my mind "that is the way toward Chicago" before I can orient myself spatially and figure out if I really want to go East. It is not uncommon for me to wind up going the wrong way and finding it necessary to turn around because I made the wrong choice. I have also occasionally given someone bad directions by telling them to go South at a certain street when I should have said North.

 

[Nyades]

I've further analyzed thinking processes thus far. This is explaining a lot about myself to me. If anyone has any input please feel free to add/change this. The following I've derived from dissecting several thinking style quizzes, self analysis, and others' input. I've identified two thinking styles as follows.

Incremental Thinking.

What it looks like: 1) Visually is like watching a slide show. 2) Via information strings/globs is like data equations.

Purpose/Ends: Predict an outcome / Find the "what" of a group of data.

Strengths: *Often includes into consideration abstract concepts (i.e. emotions).
*Fundamental for successful communication, interaction.


Associative Thinking.

What it looks like: 1) Visually is like a picture collage. 2) Via information strings/globs is like a data collage, matrices.

Purpose/Ends: *Works best with beginning and end defined then finds viable means to the selected outcome.
*Also finds less obvious correlations between various data.

Strengths: Excellent at complex problem solving and creative contemplation.

Weaknesses: *Communication comprehension is limited since most communication follows an incremental format focusing on the "what".
*Abstract concepts (i.e. emotions) are often elusive because the thought processes are driven to find the "how" and the "why" by relying on the concrete components of the data or situation.

Note: **Globs - impressions of information probably pulled from subconscious memory.

 

[Margaretha]

I think thinking is a patterned network of associations involving neurons and electrically charged nerve signals and it gets very complicated even to think about it.

 

[Scaramouche]

I usually think visual for understanding the abstract things, such as time. For example I see a workweek as a symmetrical sheet with 2 columns and 3 rows (from monday to saturday) and if I know that this is monday today I visualise it as a cell in 1-st row and 1-st column. I also see the year as a ruler with large segments (months) and small segments (weeks); January placed on the left edge and December on the right.

I also have a good visual memory and memorize an events like a slideshow or a movie. For example I see my past relationships as a serial movie. Actually this is better for me to memorize the visual information than text or digital.

 

[Margaretha]

Recently, mid-conversation I zoned out, which is normal for me. Someone asked what I was thinking about and I realized I was sorting through images of pages I've read before and mental pictures of relevant places I've visited looking for a specific fact. I was wondering if other people think this way as well?

(I also wonder if this is why I do so poorly with verbal instructions and remembering people but easily remember two-dimensional things such as facts I've read, diagrams, and notes I've taken. I also wonder if it's relevant that the things I remember are in black and white.)

I've attempted to look this up but found mixed accounts. It almost seems HFA persons think in 3-dimentional images while Aspies think in 2-dimentional images. I can only speak for myself and I may just be strange.

So, how do you think and/or recall information?

Nyades, I was wondering where you found this information. I have never realized or thought about the difference between thinking in 2 dimensions of 3 dimensions until you brought it up in this thread.

I've been doing google searches but haven't been able to find any information on it.

I don't visualize images as slide shows or two dimensional images such as pages of text or snapshots. In fact I find it difficult to imagine things in two dimensions. this always confuses me when people talk about thinking in pictures. And yet my internal world is very visual. My memories and thoughts are always in a three dimensional space. I can wander around in it and manipulate three dimensional objects within the three dimensional space. I can't visualize the picture on a book jacket but I can visualize the entire book on a table in a three dimensional space.

Maybe I'm just really weird, but I was wondering if anybody else can visualize things in 3 dimensions but find it difficult to visualize a 2 dimensional picture. I've never really heard of or thought of this before.

 

[Nyades]

I stumbled across the idea the day before I posted that while dissecting a few Thinking Style quizzes which were based on Gregorc's 4-Quadrant Mind Model and searching to compare a variety of summaries or interrpretations of the four types that might differ at least slightly. It was on this page listed under ordering ability: Abstract Sequential thinking styles
as well as the contrasting page: Concrete-Random types ( both are a high school level AP Psych class site. )

While I most likely was taking it too literally, I was intrigued by how much this concept might affect how one thinks and reasons in general. I should say, I was quite disappointed by the categories and results of those quizzes, they seemed to follow a classical model of personalities instead of thinking styles. After that I started rooting through personal accounts describing their own thoughts mentioned in various forums, blogs and websites. Since I had no intention of referencing that material, and I wanted to process a lot of information rather quick, I didn't pay attention to the specifics of those particular pages.

 

[HelloDizzy]

I usually think in cartoons, sometimes in music-video like flashes, and with a narration (me I suppose) so it's all highly "unreal" in my head.

 

[imagesbyholly]

When I was in school I could study my notes page, then "read" it in my head to find answers for a quiz. Thoughts are a web of patterns for me. Nyad's Associative Visual. I see words and images.