Visualizing words

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Just curious - does anybody else visualize the words they're about to say before actually saying them?

I often do that in order to formulate my thoughts better, when I'm writing or when I have to speak about something important. I'll visualize the words so that they seem to be flashing before my eyes, as if I was reading them off a page (and the letters are normally the specific colors that they, or the sounds they represent, have for me). The other day, I was doing this interpreting job; it was my first time doing that sort of thing, and I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I managed fine. It helped a lot that I pictured the words before I spoke them; it made me much more sure of what I was saying, somehow, so that my sentences were more or less smooth.

I wonder whether this is a sort of middle ground between verbal and visual thinking. I may visualize any words but I‘ve noticed that they usually tend to denote more abstract concepts, like say love or honesty, or they‘re arbitrary adjectives like „excellent“, „nice“, horrible“ and so on – that is, words that have no ready visual equivalent. Those that do tend to directly evoke vivid images.

I recall Temple Grandin writing somewhere about having to find visual equivalents for any words in order to understand them, so that when she deals with the more abstract ones she has to think of a more symbolic image (such as a bolt of lightning for „will“ when reading a prayer and saying „Thy will be done“). She‘s an extreme visual thinker. With me the visual thinking isn‘t so pronounced, and I can think in words if I make an effort, though it won‘t be natural. But I wonder whether the visualizing of the more abstract words for me serves the same function as creating symbolic images does for her (I have these too, on another level, but I don‘t normally think of them instantly when talking) – I don‘t necessarily have to have a concrete, tangible equivalent for all concepts, but I still need *some* visual support in order to speak and/or understand speech better.

Can anyone else relate to this?

nearly everything ive written or siad is memorised, well rehearsed so it looks slick but memorised.
i dont see words in front of me when im saying them but i apply words to a situation that i have memorised from a similar situation in a movie or book or just remembered from observing others.
the only unique stuff i write ios here.

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Yes, I've always felt that way. I remember even back in kintergarten wondering if it was normal. I think this is the reason that my mind moves so much faster than my mouth; when I'm thinking about what I want to say to a person, or what i'm going to write in an essay, it comes together more like a mosaic with a few discernable words poking in here and there rather than a string of comprehensible sentences. This is why I think I have so much trouble communicating myself sometimes, I just can't find the word or the particular phrase I'm looking for. There are times when I feel on top of the world, and I'm driving to work or something, and I tell myself this is going to be one of those days where I'm on the same wavelength as everyone, and thoughts are racing through my head about how I've been doing everything wrong before, and then I walk in the building and someone greets me and I can barely manage a monotone "hello." It's frustrating.

I have to think for awhile before I say something. If I don't, it tends to come out as meaningless jarble. Like I will say stuff that makes absolutely no sense, not even to me when I think about what I just said.

I'm the same as everybody else. I have to mentally rehearse what I'm going to say. If I don't, I get all screwed up, I have long pauses in my conversation, or I'll get stuck and be unable to find the words. When I'm caught off-guard, that's where I have problems, even if it's something as simple as how old I am. I hate when you have to go around the room and say something about yourself, nonsense like that. I keep reciting it to myself over-and-over, so I'm prepared when it's my turn. Usually, though, I say it wrong or leave something out. I do see all of the words in my head before I actually string them together. I think this is why I'm a good speller.
-OddDuckNash99-

I never used to be so bad, but I DO rehearse and run things audibly.

Steve

Yeah that. Except I wouldn't say that I don't make sense. I just babble with TMI or inappropriate content.

i do this too... like the word "life" brings forth a picture of a tuning fork (for tuning muscial instruments such as bells)


i have issues with sounding incoherant if i dont think before i speak too. i think the thing is my pics dont necesarrily code for a specific word per se, but often a word or a suite of words that have the same conotation or feeling or sense (which often brings forth a color too)... or concept as someone said. i think that's what makes it hard to speak, cause there are many interpretations you can get from any of the pics, so it's hard to verbalize it.

Yes, I do this, especially if it's something very important that I have planned carefully. Sometimes I just speak impulsively, so I tend to say things inappropriate or have trouble censoring myself. But things I plan out I definitely visualize in my head, and hear, too. Sometimes I will even externalize the words onto paper before actually speaking them to the person.

I usually feel the need to think about what I will say before I say it, but I do not visualize words in my head as if I can see them.

That's funny, I used to do that as a kid but I never heard anyone else could do that too. This applied to any random tought that I happened to have I could view a sentence in front of my eyes and spell it out mentally, I even got to correct my spelling errors lol! I guess it was something that would calm me down, I didn't particularitly like school and all those impredictable kids jumping around in all directions between classes... Also that would explain why I had excellent grades in writing, but I could barely express myself in a way people could understand.

I know the feeling too well. Sometimes, when I'm nearly manic, I feel like I'm floating on air and thoughts are flying by faster than I can register them; I'll start wondering why on Earth I'd been so clumsy and shy before, and I feel sure I'll never be like that again, because it seems that it'll be so easy to talk to others when I try. I can picture it in my head precisely, the way I'm going to speak and move my hands and react. Then someone approaches me, and I suddenly don't know what to say, get shy all over again, and barely manage to squeeze something very quiet out of myself which the other person hardly hears. It's like running headlong into a brick wall.

I have the expansive "highs" when I do chat and communicate fairly easily, too, but not always.



Exactly. It's like this torrent of images tumbling one over the other, with the occasional word here and there. It takes time to translate those images into words, and it's often hard to find the right words for a particular image or a string of them. An image may be described in many different ways, so, while it stays the way it is, it's clear to me, but once I have to do the describing I feel at a loss. In a way, it's like constantly having to do simultaneous interpreting. I remember Temple Grandin saying somewhere that she feels like being in a foreign country where verbal language is used, while to her it is only her second language, and in her mind she has to translate the images into it and back all the time. With me it's not as pronounced, probably, but I know precisely what she meant.

Last edited by ixochiyo_yohuallan on 13 Feb 2007, 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

I more often visualize words as I am writing.

Those highs you mention, they're great aren't they? In that kind of mood, things seems are so easy. I wish there were all highs and no lows.

I would love to see words in an unusual way, but I don't. I often 'type' them though, eg if I'm listening to the news, I'll 'type' the words to myself, just moving my fingers slightly, so it's not too obvious. I get annoyed if I can't keep up with the speech.

I view it like my mind is a picture or "movie." In order for me to talk, I need to put this picture or "movie" into words. The difficulty I experience is that a picture is worth a thousand words and the movie, well, thats worth a billion. So, its difficult to put images into words.

It would be better if people could read my mind and understand my visuals verses trying to create their own with the few words I conjure up to describe it.

For me.... I visualize words which I have problems spelling. I can picture where I've seen the word before and then re-create the word on paper.

Other than that... if I have to leave a telephone message or something, I rehearse it in my head and if it's really important I write it down before I leave the message. But then again, I seem to rehearse what I say in my head a lot. Especially if it's one of those 'sharing sessions' where you have to talk about yourself or something like that. I find that I completely miss what everyone else is saying because I've been planning what to say. But almost as soon as I've said my part, I've forgotten what I said- or that I've even spoken at all.