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| Do you think visually or verbally? |
| Verbally |
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28% |
[ 26 ] |
| Visually |
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71% |
[ 65 ] |
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| Total Votes : 91 |
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CelticGoddess
Lost in a song
Joined: Feb 07, 2006
Age: 34
Posts: 2884
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 Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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| I've always thought it pictures. |
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MindBlind
Raven
Joined: May 02, 2009
Age: 18
Posts: 117
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Bleu wrote: | I'm a visual thinker. Up until a few months ago I thought everybody thinks in pictures  I can't even imagine how thinking in words "looks" like. |
Yea, that was so weird for me when I found out some people think verbally. I also have a lot of sounds bouncing around my mind (normally a song I can't get out my head or repitition of what someone else has said). Though, 90% of my thoughts are visual. |
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elderwanda
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 18, 2008
Age: 42
Posts: 1044
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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I do both. It's hard to say, though. I think I switch back and forth. I know that yesterday I was sitting in my rocking chair, relaxing, and I was having pure visual thoughts that were very detailed.
But sometimes the thoughts are words. Sometimes it's as if I'm talking to someone in my head. Other times it's just isolated words.
It's difficult to think about thinking. When someone says, "How do you think?" the first thing I ask myself is "in what context?" There are different thinking scenarios. Sometimes thinking is just random thoughts coming into your mind. Other times the thoughts are a response to something that has just happened. Still other times, the thoughts are of a problem-solving nature.
Okay...I just looked at the clock and had a brief thought that I can't identify as either verbal or visual. It was an instantaneous thought that I'd better start thinking of what I'm going to feed my kids for lunch before they get cranky. Then, I verbally thought, "Oh, man, I've got to make lunch" Then I had a visual image of being in my kitchen and spreading butter on a few slices of bread, and another visual image of the table which is still covered with Legos. If I want to, I can play a detailed visual movie in my head of myself making lunch. Or I can narrate the process in my head. Or I can just go and make lunch without having any thoughts in my head at all. If I don't try to control it, I think it could be any combination of the three.
Sometimes I want to have visual thoughts and find that I cannot. For instance, if I'm looking for a new house to live in, it's really, REALLY hard for me to look around the house and visualize my stuff in it, especially if the house is not empty. Having other people's things in it (or worse, a house that has been "staged") is especially bad because we use our house differently than the typical American family. Picking out clothes is hard, because I have trouble visualizing what I already have, and whether or not the new thing will go with it. But I can play "Snow Cake" in my head from start to finish with in minute detail. I think the issue in those cases is that there are so many distractions.
As far as Temple Grandin is concerned, I think she did think that all autistic people are visual thinkers, but then she learned otherwise. I saw a video of her recently where she said that. |
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x_amount_of_words
Phoenix
Joined: May 30, 2007
Age: 17
Posts: 625
Location: South Carolina, US
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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I think in both pictures and words. When someone is talking, I normally visualize what they are saying (without really trying to). Sometimes I see words or numbers in my head but I also have internal dialoge in my head. When I'm trying to complete a task, I normally think in my head like I'm talking to myself like giving myself directions. Sometimes I imagine things happening like watching a movie in my head, I guess this would be called daydreaming. I think I do this because I have ADD symptoms.
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"I've chosen concentration rather than conformity, imagination in place of mainstream social acceptance."
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Morgana
Phoenix
Joined: Sep 21, 2008
Posts: 1311
Location: Hamburg, Germany
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Kajjie wrote: | My thinking is in words. Either spoken, sung or written words.
As for picturing a duck, it's not that I just think of lots of words, but I can't picture a duck. I can picture different parts of a duck (the beak, the feet, the feathers), but can't put them together to make a whole duck. I think I remember reading something about this, maybe in a book I have about the mind and brain. I will try and look it up again. It makes it difficult to draw from memory, because to draw something well I need to start with the basic shape normally, and I can't see that - just the details which are sometimes too difficult for me to draw.
I can however, picture a rubber duck much better, because it's much simpler. |
Interesting, this is exactly how I would visualize a duck from the imagination; I can see very clear, detailed images, but the "big picture" is blurry. However, if I were to look at a real picture of a duck over and over again, I can "flash" the picture in my mind and see it really well. I remember I had trouble answering that question on the AQ test, too. Does this mean itīs difficult for me to see something from my imagination? What is it like for other people- how can I compare? I thought everyone was like me, I never thought about it before.
As for thinking, I guess I think mostly verbally, although I also get visual images too- (albeit "too detailed" and not a clear enough whole). 
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"death is the road to awe" |
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Almandite
Blue Jay
Joined: Mar 24, 2009
Age: 17
Posts: 88
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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I think verbally, although if you were to say "duck" I would picture first a duck, then the word.
Temple Grandin's updated theory is that Autistics think either visually, verbally, or in patterns like math and music. They tend to think very strongly in one way and have difficulty accessing other ways of thinking. This seems pretty accurate to me. One of the things I like about her is that she updates her theories when new information is shared with her.
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[url=http://almandite.wordpress.com/]Barefoot Amongst Birch Trees[/url] |
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Unico
Snowy Owl
Joined: Jul 23, 2004
Age: 26
Posts: 160
Location: Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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| I generally see things visually -- just not usually in pictures. More in colors and patterns. |
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x_amount_of_words
Phoenix
Joined: May 30, 2007
Age: 17
Posts: 625
Location: South Carolina, US
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:17 pm Post subject: |
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I have trouble with the word association game people post on forums. It's also a diagnostic tool used to diagnose thought disorders, although I don't think it's a very good one. My problem is not thinking a random word, mine is not being able to think of a word. When I hear or read the word, the first word that comes to mind is the word I just read.
_________________
BROOKE:]
"I've chosen concentration rather than conformity, imagination in place of mainstream social acceptance."
A forum for the ASD community: www.spectrumforums.com
Myspace Group: http://groups.myspace.com/thenewaspiegroup
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x_amount_of_words
Phoenix
Joined: May 30, 2007
Age: 17
Posts: 625
Location: South Carolina, US
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Unico wrote: | | I generally see things visually -- just not usually in pictures. More in colors and patterns. |
I normally see patterns and colors and a lot of other stuff in my head when I listen to music. My explanation for how I experience music is kind of strange, I think, but I think it's just being creative.
_________________
BROOKE:]
"I've chosen concentration rather than conformity, imagination in place of mainstream social acceptance."
A forum for the ASD community: www.spectrumforums.com
Myspace Group: http://groups.myspace.com/thenewaspiegroup
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militarybrat
Deinonychus
Joined: Aug 23, 2007
Age: 24
Posts: 303
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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| I think both visually and verbally; It's pretty equal, sometimes I see my thoughts, sometimes I hear them, and sometimes both. |
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mgran
Phoenix
Joined: May 23, 2009
Posts: 662
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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Almost constantly thinking in words... even when I dream sometimes. When I've been living or reading in foriegn languages, I sometimes dream a scene, and have subtitles underneath it (which for some reason I find disturbing). So for example, I have dreamt of people arguing in French, I'm thinking in English, and the subtitles are Russian. The subtitles are almost always wrong though.
I've also dreamt that I'm reading pages and pages of text... and those dreams exhaust me.
However I do remember vividly thinking without words, and feeling very frustrated because I couldn't say what I was thinking. I know now that I was frightened, because I was trying to think about God (or something much much bigger than me) but I couldn't explain why I was scared. My thought picture was me standing in a white field, with a weighty gaze boring down on me, but I couldn't see the gazer. My Mum was trying to calm me down, and I had my hands wrapped over my head, trying to hide, and rocking and humming.
I think I was three or four. It was before I started school, because when I started school I could speak, and was thinking verbally more often.
I can visualise things fairly easily, but words come more naturally to me. |
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Kaleido
Nearly NT and counting
Joined: Feb 19, 2007
Posts: 2602
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Mostly pictures, in fact, life often just runs by in images in my head but you find eventually that you need language because of other people. |
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x_amount_of_words
Phoenix
Joined: May 30, 2007
Age: 17
Posts: 625
Location: South Carolina, US
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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| mgran wrote: | Almost constantly thinking in words... even when I dream sometimes. When I've been living or reading in foriegn languages, I sometimes dream a scene, and have subtitles underneath it (which for some reason I find disturbing). So for example, I have dreamt of people arguing in French, I'm thinking in English, and the subtitles are Russian. The subtitles are almost always wrong though.
I've also dreamt that I'm reading pages and pages of text... and those dreams exhaust me.
However I do remember vividly thinking without words, and feeling very frustrated because I couldn't say what I was thinking. I know now that I was frightened, because I was trying to think about God (or something much much bigger than me) but I couldn't explain why I was scared. My thought picture was me standing in a white field, with a weighty gaze boring down on me, but I couldn't see the gazer. My Mum was trying to calm me down, and I had my hands wrapped over my head, trying to hide, and rocking and humming.
I think I was three or four. It was before I started school, because when I started school I could speak, and was thinking verbally more often.
I can visualise things fairly easily, but words come more naturally to me. |
I also have dreams about text. Sometimes I'll dream I'm reading. One time I had a dream that I was reading a poem I wrote (in the dream). The vocabulary in it seemed even more advanced than mine...and I wonder if some of the words were just made up. I don't think it really made sense to me.
_________________
BROOKE:]
"I've chosen concentration rather than conformity, imagination in place of mainstream social acceptance."
A forum for the ASD community: www.spectrumforums.com
Myspace Group: http://groups.myspace.com/thenewaspiegroup
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mgran
Phoenix
Joined: May 23, 2009
Posts: 662
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Yes, I find that if I wake up from one of my "reading dreams" I'm usually talking nonsense. For example, "having thus attracted the attention of aged warrior the table scuttled across the ceiling." I hate it when I get something like that stuck in my head first thing in the morning! |
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x_amount_of_words
Phoenix
Joined: May 30, 2007
Age: 17
Posts: 625
Location: South Carolina, US
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| Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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| mgran wrote: | | Yes, I find that if I wake up from one of my "reading dreams" I'm usually talking nonsense. For example, "having thus attracted the attention of aged warrior the table scuttled across the ceiling." I hate it when I get something like that stuck in my head first thing in the morning! |
lol that's how my poem was. It made absolutely no sense and it was weird to think about when I woke up. I can't remember it anymore, though I wish I could. I would post it on one of those dream interpretation sites for someone to try and analyze.
_________________
BROOKE:]
"I've chosen concentration rather than conformity, imagination in place of mainstream social acceptance."
A forum for the ASD community: www.spectrumforums.com
Myspace Group: http://groups.myspace.com/thenewaspiegroup
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