Thinking in words

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I know that Temple Grandin thinks in pictures. However I think completely in words. If someone says "banana", I don't see a banana, I see the word "banana" written in my mind. I remember once someone said "think of what your Mum looks like" and I saw the words "your Mum" in my head lol. Does anyone else have this?

Autism =/= visual thinker.

Actually, Temple Grandin pointed out that people think in three different ways: Pictures, patterns, and verbal logic. In my experience, neurotypicals seem to be mostly spread out in terms of how they think, but autistics tend to specialize.

I would guess that you are a verbal logic thinker. Do you learn languages really well or like making lists?

What does it mean to think in patterns? I ask because I don't seem to think just in pictures or just in words most of the time. I think in... thoughts. It's hard to describe them, but they are maybe a bit like computer files (some are words, some are pictures) that you can expand or minimize and rearrange however you want?

I think in words as well. I always did think in words. It must be all of the hours of the day that I have my music playing. I listen to music and listen to radio talk shows at the same intensity that most people would watch TV, or play video games.

Thank you for the replies.

MrLoony - I used to be really good at languages as a teenager, but I am badly out of practise. One thing that is true is that diagrams are completely unhelpful for me in textbooks and I have converted all diagrams into descriptive text for my revision later.

bicentennialman - I think I understand what you mean. I am not sure how to describe thinking in patterns.

CockneyRebel - I listen to several hours of music a day myself. Can you think in pictures at all? Because I can't even if I try. I can't even visualise my parents' faces or my friend's face. I don't make eye contact which I suppose doesn't help. If someone asks me what my Mum looks like, I will have to go through my data of hair colour, skin, eye colour etc; no image will form, just a table of data.

I describe "images" in my head as impressions. I don't see them... it's more like I'm aware of exactly every quality (or sometimes, there will be a vague impression), but there is no picture.

I think in patterns and pictures. Mostly pictures. If you tell me to think 'banana' I will imagine a banana. However, if you tell me to think of the word banana, I will think of the word banana in black and white verdana font. Essentially, I can't fathom or imagine thinking in words. D:

Last edited by Jonsi on 20 Jan 2011, 6:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Maybe, in a small way, I tend to do that. For example, if I were to try to draw a picture of a cat, I might draw a very imperfect outline of a cat/sort of a cat using a black pen on white paper. Then I feel like I would tend to almost have to write in words inside the cat like blue for eyes and black for the color of the cat prior to selecting those colors from a color palate to color the sketch. Words: whole vs parts, constructional apraxia, etc. I do have central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) and do not automatically translate all words spoken by people or used in songs into mental images in my head at all. I can tend to repeat back some of the words, then write them on paper, and then using my visual sense - read the words - at which point clearer mental images tend to unfold for me. Recall reading a How To (understand) Hyperactivity book (1981) about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild who addressed this subject in great detail. More words: normal mental images, how words on a page are translated into mental images in the head, normal visualization, normal use of the imagination, sustained attention, processing, memory, reading, and so on.

Sorry, I think in figures and pictures.

Notable is my ability to see the entire 20th and 21st century so far on a visual timeline. There are dips and peaks and colours and there's this infinite vertical line at the year 2000. It's really cool.

I can think in words, but it's very slow and good luck getting more than a sentence before I go back to images/auditory/etc stuff.

I seem to be mostly visual. I think that maybe it's not so much that there's a few specific ways to think or whatever, but a spectrum where some things are easier than others. Like I can think abstractly enough for mental mathematics (which I learned to do), and I can think in words to a limited extent, unless I talk or write (which makes verbal thinking concrete and sensory, and thus fits into how I think, I suspect), but if I'm not making any effort, it's all sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, etc. with emotional context and some sentence fragments (which become me whispering or talking to myself if I follow them very far).

Sort of related, this video is interesting:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR1IZJXc6d8[/youtube]

I think primarily in words, but not exclusively. There are some pictures here and there. If you asked me to imagine a banana, I would see the word first but also several images from memory.

That actually sounds like synesthesia! I have it as well, but I see centuries as arches. The 21st century so far is a very small arch.

I am an Aspie and I think in words an abstract diagrams. Being a mathematician has strengthened my habit of thinking in diagrams which look nothing like anything concrete.

Temple Grandin thinks in a very concrete manner. I think in an extremely abstract manner. Different modes for different minds.

ruveyn

I know EXACTLY what you mean. It's fascinated me for fifty years. I was blown away to hear a fantastic radio show on this very topic recently... It's a little annoying how they talk to me... but what they say is gripping. You can find it here... called voices in your head> http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab- ... ommentlist

And there is a book by Jill Taylor called My Stroke of Insight, and she recounts what happened to her when she has a stroke and loses her voice in her head (she loves it) and exists in the sunlit now. Amazon has reviews and comments on the cool story here > http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight ... 145&sr=1-1

Good description of what I get. It's a "concise whole", not a verbal description or an image. Varies a bit and sometimes there's an attached image (bad word: it's deeper than a simple snapshot effect) or I might prod the impression about with words, but it's mostly this "wholeness" thing going on.
If I'm thinking on a project or somesuch then I move amongst a group of related impressions, each connected with aspects of the project.

When I hear the word banana, I can picture several bananas I've had. I eat three different brands. Dole, Del Monte and a brand that comes from Wal Mart that never has a name just a little green and white sticker on it with the words good veggies or something like that. Not sure on the exact wording. The green and white colors are clear, though. Out of those three, my favorite is Dole. My least liked is the Wal Mart brand because it's hard to start peeling and the tip is usually mushier and more ripe than the rest of it.
I also think of what it was like the last time I ate a banana and what brand it was (a Wal Mart green and white stickered banana) and how I can't eat over ripe bananas with brown peels. This topic is easy because I eat a banana nearly everyday for the potassium.
I can see the word banana in my head as well, and I can hear the word in my mind.
I have bananas covered from all angles

I look at the world as patterns, but I think a lot in words because I understand the patterns of words, if that makes any sense. I like the rhythms of syllables, I like the way they look on a page—I can recognize many typos others don't see without having read the page, just knowing something's not right in the general pattern of letters. Part of it is also I'm really a musician at base (who can't play anymore because of physical problems, which is really frustrating), and words are musical/rhythmic patterns to me.