What do people mean: "Autistics think in pictures"

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Ok so I hear this all the time that Autistics are different because they think in pictures... I just don't get it. How do NT people think? In Language??? Can they really not think any faster than they can process language?

Like to do they just hear/read words in their head?

It is just so weird to me when people tell me that we think in a different way but I don't really understand how you could think any other way.

I don't understand how anyone else would think through problems either. I don't know if I think so much in pictures as in flow diagrams, or sometimes in spreadsheets, or with blocks that fit together like a kids toy when I'm doing maths.

Meaning most autistics think visually, they do better when a picture is put in front of them rather then just a couple sentences. I know I automatically see a picture of what something is, rather then explanation in words.

If somebody told me where a 7eleven is? make a right, turn left, go straight for a bit, then go through two traffic lights, and it should be on the right, um yea i would be totally lost. If somebody told me its next to gas station, and across from it is a diner, I would understand a whole lot better. When I give directions, i would simply say, go down the street, your see this amount of trees, you turn right after the restaruant, you pass a petstore, laundry mat, a dunkin donuts, then make a left after dunkin donuts, see a gas station should be on the right of the gas station, and if you look across there is a diner.

I think that answered your question, if not im sorry

It's a very simple concept. Neurotypicals think in words, not pictures.

In comics and on television and movies, a character's thoughts might be shown to the viewer using words. It's not so difficult to imagine a thought process using words.

Exactly, this is a concept I've been trying to investigate for long. I personally think everything through pictures (multidimensional), colours, patterns, shapes and sounds. I asked my father and some other people who can be considered quite 'normal' or 'average' and was shocked by their way of thinking.

I asked my father how he sees it when I tell him to think of numbers from one to one hundred.
The answer:

"1...100"

Black, stiff numbers with a white background. Comparing this to my way of seeing the whole devious and transforming line in a boundaryless space, it was quite a culture shock, though I'm still at the point where I know what he sees, but am not yet quite sure how he sees.

Later another person asked why I must think everything in pictures. It led to her describing her way of thinking. She told me she had tried thinking in pictures, but felt she had gotten the most out of it she possibly could so she moved on. She thinks I'm stuck with my way of thinking.

I've tried altering my way of thinking in different ways so see where they're coming from, but it hasn't been as successful as I had hoped. It's seeming somewhat clear my brain is just hardwired this way so I'm doubting I can ever truly understand the concept of thinking differently, even if I know the theory.

Last edited by Keoren on 11 Feb 2008, 3:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I understand things in pictures and patterns or shapes. Words that are in use all of the time and with familiar phrases, I see nothing very much, that is more automatic but if I am learning something new, I can only do it if I can see the pictures or shapes and then I can translate into words from that.

That's not actually accurate though.

There are many ways to represent thought, and words and pictures are only two of them. Even among words and pictures there are many ways for each to take place.

My mom is not autistic, but she thinks in pictures. I am autistic and I don't think in pictures or words (well, some of my thoughts can contain visual information or word-based information, but neither of those is the primary way I think) -- I think in patterns and spatial stuff that is not particularly visual (with things like shape, motion, and smell being some of the main sensory aspects of it). My father is autistic and thinks in pictures, and my brother is autistic and thinks in words when he's talking to people and pictures or other things when he is trying to figure out how to do something mechanical. My non-autistic brother thinks either in pictures or something very close to it.

Autistic people can also think entirely in words. I have a friend who is autistic and thinks in printed words scrolling across her mind like typed text. And there are things to think in that are not words or pictures, in all senses, or combinations thereof, as well as in many highly abstract ways, like an autistic friend who thinks in what he calls schematics, which are non-visual representations of things that make him very good at programming and networks. Another autistic person I know thinks in patterns of color that all have different meanings to her. People can think in movement, music, smell, and all kinds of other things.

Think Temple Grandin said it's kanner autistics who are most likely to think in pictures,and asperger autistics are more likely to have a different way of thinking [can't remember which type,it's all in thinking in pictures,don't have the book here to look through].

A good example of thinking in pictures would be Stephen Wiltshire,he is also a savant,and can see perfect image in his mind,and redraw the whole thing after only looking at it once.

Thank you, I've been trying to figure out how to explain how I think, because it's NOT in pictures. My buddy is always talking about how he's a "Visual Aspie, don't say things like that, I think in pictures" ... bleh. I don't think in words, nor pictures. Patterns is a very good way to describe it. I also tend to see patterns quickly, and math plays a huge role in it, as does music and odor. I'm pretty good with math now, but I can vividly recall having major issues with it as a youngster, especially fractions. There was a point, and I'm sure if you looked at my grades (assuming you can FIND those records 35 years later) you would see precisely when math clicked, and it was because someone pointed out the patterns. One of my favorite examples is the rule of threes. Any number that can be divided by 3, if you sum the digits of it, that number too can be divided by 3.

Patterns, gotta love 'em.

"Whatever you do, don't think of a pink elephant!!"

That even works on people who aren't visual. The math oriented Aspie population doesn't usually think "visually" they think in patterns, and like you said "math oriented". Visual Aspies may be good at math, but it's not easy like it is for the pattern thinkers. We tend to do better with music, art, creative based thinking, where pattern thinkers tend to be more pratical. In other words, boooooooring to the average visual thinker. Aspie's aren't the only ones who think visually, NT's can do it too. The best way I can explain it is EVERY thought is a "pink elephant" for me. If I think it I picture it. Period. If I can't picture it easily, I have to work out a conceptialization that allows me to grasp it. Pattern thinkers tend to be more linear, visual thinkers work more in a gestalt. Grasp a concept as a whole, rather than pieces that fit together. Gah... even that doesn't get it across, partially because it DOESN'T translate into words easily.

And if you told them the things you're saying to me that say "Don't TELL me that..." grrrrrrrrrr... now I need some mental floss...

heh yeah I have always been good at math, but that is probably cause my Neurodivergent dad pointed out the patterns in numbers before I could even read

Nowadays I make a living looking at the risk patterns in data for the biggest bank in the US, it's pretty funny but I have never been able to teach a person to look at patterns like that but I have been able to excel at programming computers to do it. My favorite is writing a program to recognize patterns and learn from them, then it will show me the patterns that I was missing. The whole thing is more than just a little obsessive.

Anyway I am just always so shocked by what I have deduced to be the typical thought process because it seems to have a very narrow band for abstraction. Half my speech is metaphores, and the other half is echolalia/scripting so I just can;t imagine how anyone could have an original thought if they think in "speech".

I think in pictures all the time, when i was 5 i could read a whole book out of pictures and what they are lol

Last edited by Jamie06 on 11 Feb 2008, 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nobody thinks in words, truthfully. The words are assigned after raw thought has occurred.

I think that people who devote a great deal of time to thinking (as those with autism often do) realize this and analyze it. I witness that time gap, as do many others here. I go through stages when words can be assigned to my thoughts so readily and easily, I feel I am swimming in the words and can play with them as I please. I also go through times when I liken myself to a wolf or other wild creature, because my raw thoughts are more readily identified with images, or cannot easily be associated with anything at all. When I am in those times, it is more difficult to communicate successfully, especially about things that are important to me. The more complex a thought is, the more it defies being tied to words and pictures.

Many people are not aware that they are thinking when they are not telling themselves words in their heads, but they are still thinking.

My more complex thoughts are not in words. I don't know if applies to most, but I definitely think more in pictures and things just "pop in" pronto.

I don't think in pictures at all.

It is a myth that NTs don't think in pictures. I did a straw poll and all of them did. They don't think about abstract things in pictures. Nearly all of them saw photographic pictures, but not sure how good they were at manipulation. The only person that had trouble doing so is somebody who claimed his imaging skills were diminished through drugs.

Last edited by 0_equals_true on 11 Feb 2008, 1:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Absolutely but you can think in language. I do have surface thoughts in language.

The rest of my thought are in difficult to describe form. The closest I could say is something like definitions. The problem is is how I think is entirely blind and I mean that in the literal sense. So it is like a black box and kind of disordered.