do you have visual thinking?

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I get lost easily if I've never been somewhere but once I've been somewhere I know my way around quickly. When thinking about directions, I ask for landmarks so I can visually map my route. I'm bad with direction and spatial sense.

Ronald Mcdonald drunk while riding a flachulant hippo!

As far as directions I am HOPELESS.. Anything where I have to re-orient myself after turning makes me all kinds of confused and disoriented. Without a map in hand I will get lost for certain. And I'm the type of person who has to turn the map around with every turn I make. Left... rotate map.... .

On the other hand, I'm pretty good with spacial relations... those fold-unfold-the-object quiz questions, packing boxes (or refrigerators), stuff like that. I credit Tetris

The thing with me is I do visualize, but I see words in my head, not pictures. I could listen to you lecture for an hour and then critique or respond to entire sections almost verbatim. I think this is why spelling is super easy for me, too. I just see the word in my head. The best thing to happen for me was the whole concept of "mind mapping" -- that is almost EXACTLY how I think, and makes it so much easier to organize and share thoughts. I see words in my head, group them, make connections, move them around... and is why I take such a long time to communicate verbally. I have to convert the diagram I've mentally made of everything you've said to me back into linear sentences to respond to you...

If someone gives me directions, or in fact anything speaking only, I cannot picture the place and have a hard time paying attention and getting there. There instructions seem to get out of order in my head. Or people try to teach me how to navigate a city with street names. Ha, no.... landmarks work way better.

Once I've been somewhere though an ENTIRE place or route, it is imprinted in my memory. I know the layout of houses I've lived in over a decade ago, anything after the age of 3, but not just the layout. I can recreate the furniture and where it was, the color of the floor tiles, the placement of furniture and items that fascinated me. The earlier layouts have blacked out parts where I didn't know what was there because I didn't go there often, but anything later than the age of 6 is perfect.

I remember the layouts of schools, down to the types of chairs and since I was older even the posters hanging on the walls. And yet, I can't remember the faces of friends from those times.. I can only recognize people by their faces because i suck at names, and yet, they don't stay in my memory. It took me an entire year once to pin a name to someone's face. It became a running joke.

As for visualizing complex objects, I love doing that. I also like creating imaginary places and using the mind map/house technique to remember temporary things that I would otherwise forget. My short term memory is also crap.

Absolutely not.

I have a very limited ability to create "mental maps" in my head, and I have weak visual-thinking.

I navigate verbally, and I never drive far from home without my GPS.

I can see the whole way around my hometown in my head and certain buildings I'm familiar with so I guess I'm primarily a visual thinker, though I'm an equally good audio thinker.