Thinking in shapes?

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Just wondered if anyone else here ever thinks in shapes?
I've noticed when trying to remember phone numbers that each one I try to commit to memory easily has a certain shape in my mind. Doubled numbers are usually a simple parallel horizontal line, while some numbers, like my last cell phone number, are so strange in my mental picture that it's like I have to remember a line that's roughly S- shaped, or like a crawling snake! Ugh! It's just that some numbers have a more pleasing shape than others do, in my mind.
Also, certain memories with trigger certain shapes. Like a picture with a diagonal slash through it for unpleasant memories, or sometimes moving shapes for other certain memories.
Anybody else here ever experience thinking like mine? So curious to find out whether or not this thinking of mine is unique to just me, or whether I have any company!

That's neat, it sounds like synesthesia....your number shapes sound like the sort that Daniel Tammet has.

sounds like you can use that to your advantage.

Thanks, guys! I cannot compare myself to Daniel Tammet- he has abilities far greater than I do with numbers!
As far as using it to my advantage, how would I do that? Just asking.

I sometimes visualize elaborate patterns when thinking about abstract concepts.

Any Asperger seems to visualize much more and better than me poor NT, memorizes or registers much larger quantities and associates much more broadly. My only-number memory is limited to two and a half phone numbers. If there was something like a NT spectrum disorder - and I actually believe in its existence - , I would be terribly low-functioning.

Synaesthesia seems to be quite common, too, although me personally, I think that one should not overdo it with the significance of these largely arbitrary agglomerates (see Saussure on language), and systemize too much on it; just take it as a source of inspiration.

You might check:
1. Interview with Melvin Kaplan on vision and autism (peripheral vision)
2. Oliver Sacks: good for all kinds of neurologic particularities
3. Paintings in "Drawing autism", Paul Klee
4. "arithmomania"and number obsession/OCD.

I wish. Maybe it would be easier to read...

I use shapes to visualize what I see and what I am drawing (What shapes make up __________?)

I tend to think in pea green circles because of my love for peas and pea-like things.

All of you have very interesting things to say about thinking in shapes and such as that!
I'll have to admit that telling people what kind of phone number I want based on the shape it takes in my mind can get really interesting. Some people are like "How cool!" Some are like "That's interesting" in a very uninterested voice. Fortunately, here lately people have been very nice about accommodating my "need" for numbers to have a certain shape, so have been really nice to me!
I hope there will be even more people to comment on this, though the comments already posted have been great to read!
Thinking in abstract patterns to help you paint sounds really neat, and so does thinking in green circles. Far out!

Actually, any kind of thinking that isn't just in words grabs my attention, whether it is beautiful patterns from abstract thinking, or any kind that makes you think "Wow, neat!"

I thought you just meant like your shapes -- silly animalcrackers.

Shapes are part of my thinking because my thinking is mostly visual-spatial....shape is important.

Not-ordinary-object shapes feature more heavily in more abstract types of concepts. For example, I picture the autism spectrum as a sort of kooshball....well, technically more like lots of sticks of different colours all intersecting at a center point and overall forming a spherical shape that looks sort of like a kooshball.

Interesting, animalcrackers!
When I think of the autistic spectrum, I think of a great bell curve, or, when feelings are involved with it, like the width and depth of the oceans.
How about that?

I don't understand why you're winking....but that's pretty cool and your visuals make sense to me (I can't know all the specific details in them but still)

I usually think in binary logic gates, and I don't really consider those shapes, but technically they are and I can see how others would say that.
Technically all patterns are shapes.
The ability to use or integrate shapes into patterns is a very important type of intelligence.

We are talking about being able to discern different levels of order, or anti-entropy.


However, after reading this thread I am now thinking about animal crackers, and those are shapes.

Lol@Olympiadis! Good way to say it!
I tend to agree with what you wrote about your binary logic being a shape, as are all things. Trying to explain just what I see isn't usually very easy, but I still try to.
Trying to memorize the last four numbers on my latest bank card caused what I considered to be a new "shape" or maybe sensation: when I read it, I saw/ felt a moving blur heading diagonally downward and to the right. I dunno if this qualifies as Synesthesia or not, because I don't know if my shapes and sensations are all consistent or not.....

I think what you're talking about is quite similar to that described by Daniel Tammet.
What I think is that those shapes not need to be 100% consistent in how you recall them. If what I think is true then what you perceive is very close to "raw" information before being sorted and compartmentalized by the conscious thought process.
I think we are talking about the brain's own or native/natural language that it develops in the unconscious no matter if you ever learn an external language or not.
The processing of such information "can" be extremely efficient because it may avoid a great many steps of translation and associations with stored memories.

Most of us don't perceive raw information in our conscious thought, but perhaps only rarely under special conditions where conscious thought is suppressed.

My binary logic gates are an added layer of translation and association, but it is still an extremely simple way to manipulate information.

You should explore the ability further through experiment and testing to see what may show itself.