Thinking Styles

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I figured I haven't posted a topic for a while, and I am curious how many of you have experiences here similar to ones I have.

When I was young, I remembered and recalled things very easily. My memory wasn't what I would call photographic, but it seemed almost like I just never forgot. Eventually, my memory was such that I could forget new memories, but could still compare and say YEP, that's it. I describe it almost like a feeling. It still conveys most of the info it would if it was photographic.

One of the strongest, oldest, all encompassing examples I can think of is when a soldering gun I had was hurt about 36 years ago. I remember the tone of the green color of the case, the copper color of the tip, that was screwed on with two screws, the dirty gold color of the rug, how it was burned, and the case melted. It was a craftsman(made by sears), that my "uncle" and friend bought for me. I remember how I reached over for something and noticed my arm on the hot tip. It didn't hurt until I noticed, and I eventually got a nice welt on my arm in the shape of the tip. I remember the school I went to, and checking it at recess. I remember the smell. It is almost like I can feel the gun now, feel its grip, and the black trigger switch, the weight. I can even remember the way the ICs, I was soldering, were printed(They were basically silkscreened on plastic, and hard to read). Still, I couldn't tell you what the serial number was, or how many compartents its case had.

I remember in the same way today. I can go through my memory, etc..., almost like another world while driving or programming, etc... I can imagine objects at various locations.

What I CAN'T seem to do is really store information with such high quality that I can read things in like a book format. It is almost like I see stuff with peripheral vision, if you know what I mean.

Same here. I retain the basic ideas of what I am told, some of the details, but never the entire thing... when I do manage to retain an entire situation, it doesn't really register as much... especially if it regards a verbal conversation. I get a basic idea of what is being said overall, and that is all I will retain. I can repeat it back, but that's all it is-repetition, and it's not often... I get no meaning out of it and cannot connect to it fully. When describing a situation, I remember bits and pieces at a time as it comes back to me. One minute, I might remember what someone was wearing, but the next time it is brought up, I will remember where they were standing and what they were wearing is a blur. It's very odd. At times there is a photographic quality to it, but it all depends on what I'm recalling. Always in pictures though, regardless.

Last edited by nobodyzdream on 15 Sep 2007, 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think in pictures. That's the way that I've thought, since I was little.

But is it such that you can actually read books, etc???? With ME, it is odd. I have actually debugged assembly language programs that were thousands of bytes in my head, or know what would be on sections of a book, but I don't generally have that kind of ability.

I'm with the Rebel, I think in pictures too, and I've never thought any differently.

Words are just pictures after all, like I say; it's one big puzzle to me that I place together in the correct order I was taught. When I think of the word "order", I think of nice neat rows of things, I don't even see the word till I've had fun staring at the order that I see and have moved on; I've learnt to attach the word to pictures and this is how I purvey...everything.

I can recite groups of words I see without error if I so wish (see: reiterating text I've read).

WOW! Even for hindi, I think I am basically reconstructing the spelling. It uses a distinctly different symbology(they don't even call it an alphabet half the time). But I have a hard enough time really determining how I think. I decided to spend only a little time from time to time reading the latest harry potter book. Parts of it WERE like a movie. It would be interesting to see how much the movie varies from my view of the scene where harry gets the sword. I WISH I still had a great memory, and I always wished I had one *I* saw as photographic. You know, SOME "scientists" claim such a memory doesn't exist!

I would say solely in pics for me as well... when I am thinking out loud, it's still in images in my head-I see myself thinking the stuff and pacing around the room sometimes, or I see myself discussing it with someone else. If I am writing an essay, I see it appearing before me sort of (in my mind of course), but it's on a computer screen... still in pictures, at least I think it is. When I recall something I have said, it's like a horribly done homemade video.

If reading something I have never seen before... it's just words with no meanings to me, and that is all it is. I can force myself to read something over and over and memorize, but it is simply just an image of me staring at my notes, saying exactly what I wrote down, lol (I haven't the slightest clue what they mean most of the time). I can't read anything if I've never seen a movie or had a real life experience that ties to it in any way. It just doesn't register at all.

lol, I didn't completely forget that I already posted, just explaining a bit more I guess-sorry if I repeated myself too much.

Story of my life. Add in the lack of interest of said topic and it's like I'm looking at blank paper; a whole bunch of words that mean as much to me as if they weren’t there.

I’ve got a pretty good memory for past events and words I'm "interested" in; I doubt it's photographic in that the picture I see isn't exactly the same as what happened or what is, but it'd be close to it (the past is always distorted to some extent, it's like looking through frosted glass).

Yeah, that is one thing. I can morph how I imagine something happened, etc.. Almost like editing a movie. I won't dwell on it though, because I am too afraid I might remember the result, rather than the real memory.

Still, 90% of my problem on learning things, and certain things like driving routes, etc... Has been the lack of a quick memory. Though need and real desire help on really learning, and driving the rute once certainly helps. People here have spoken of even worse examples. Why is it so many of you sound like you have such great memories, and yet deficits that are related to bad ones? Then again, sound isn't so easily conveyed through pictures. And so many indicate an ability to do that well.

Oh well. Trying to determine exactly how a person thinks or feels, so you can almost see how they feel first hand, is WAY to difficult.

Hmmm... I suppose if I can recall something that somebody said, I can *almost* hear it, while I watch them say it in my mind. The images always are there , like watching a homemade video. But it isn't the same... it seems I see their mouth moving in my mind, and what they said comes to me. I don't really *hear* it in any sense, but I am able to repeat it. Almost like I am talking for them. There is not really any sound coming with it in my mind, everything spills out of my own mouth when trying to recall an event. Before I can remember what was actually said sometimes I have to go down the list. For example if somebody mentions that they said something to me, I will go through it:

I was wearing my PJs still.
You called at 9 a.m. and were talking about such and such.
Then you stated (whatever it was).
I reacted ________.

or

You were standing by the couch and had just walked over to the table.
You dropped your cell phone and when you went to reach down and get it, you said ________.


It, of course, is always a little bit different than how it happened, I am sure, but I would say 90% of the time, I am the one saying what they said-out loud. I am not sure how it happens, it must get stored somewhere. It just doesn't come back to me the same way that it happened. The most common phrase people probably hear from me is, "I can SEE it happening! It's right on the tip of my tongue what happened, but I just can't get it out."

It triggers this cue of some sort when anyone begins to talk in my mind-I don't hear it, but I know what they said somehow... I'm just not always shown what was said-does that make sense?

Usually what I see before I get anything remotely similar to what they said is my own reaction, and I remember what happened to get that reaction. I just don't... recall it. I would be more prone to see it flash in my mind, written down on a piece of tattered notebook paper in sloppy handwriting, than to actually recall someone else saying it (or, I guess I should say, hearing them in my mind). People's mouths move, but words don't come out. Somehow I know what was said.

Wow, this is hard to explain, lol. It makes sense to me, I know what I'm trying to say... it just sounds backwards when trying to describe it, lol.

Yeah, I guess that is why we are our own guinea pigs, to use your tag line.

I guess I don't ACTUALLY hear it either. It is almost like my visual memory. Maybe it is because I am USED to hearing indirectly, but seeing video directly. So it seems more natural to me. If not for my daydreaming, imagination, matching, ability to map hundreds of miles down the the shelf on a store, and describe the product in question, right down to approximate size and color, I would doubt I even had any visual memory. You know, some "scientists" are now even doubting you see pictures or colors when you dream! It was stupid things like that that really made me feel like I was from another planet.

I just REALLY want to improve my memory as much as I can. And HEY, if I get to understand others here better, GREAT!

I think like YouTube. Video snippets.


On a different angle, I've noticed the way most people seem to think. Quick, but simple... surface-level only. No depth. The vehicle equivalent of a sports car.

I tend to think significantly slower, but at a far greater depth. I don't just learn a simple procedure then regurgitate it, I dig for all the reasons WHY something is done to learn the job thoroughly and KNOW why something is done. Better yet, then I can improve it or make corrections when something goes wrong. Even "simple" speech is a complicated, thought-out process... and I have to almost guess as to facial expressions, tone, humour, double-meanings, hidden meanings, etc.... thinking like mad about all implications and outcomes. I'll call this the vehicle equivalent of a cargo truck with an extra trailer.

In simple things, the sports car zips right past me - laughing all the way about how much better s/he is.

In complex things, I can handle the load and crunch the data, and give a true solution. Few have admired this though, because even when faced with a difficult problem many people prefer the "sports car" approach because it's quick and appears to offer a solution right away. When the ill advice goes awry (as it often does) someone else will be blamed, if any blame is laid at all! Often, the Powers That Be will have no connection between the old problem and the new problem created by the quick and dirty solution.

Too many people feel that "slow thinkers" are dum-dums, rather than considering some may be heavy, complex-thinking near-geniuses.

Like some other people here, I'm a mostly visual thinker who has some trouble with reading comprehension.