How do you think?

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Yes, I think almost exclusively in pictures. It lets me visualize (either adding onto reality or from scratch) extremely complex and realistic looking scenarios in my mind that would probably take days to render on a computer. I love doing this whenever I'm listening to a song, so I can improvise sequences in my mind where every movement is synchronized, choreographed, and controlled by the songs tempo, volume, and lyrics while still seeming "natural." Usually it's action based, and involves some sort of battle sequence, or someone outrunning an explosion in a car or something.

It's kinda like in this XKCD comic, which only makes me believe Randall Munroe is an Aspie even more...



Whenever I've talked to my teachers about this, they've always seemed shocked by it. They've said that they can only think in words and find it very difficult to visualize anything in their minds, let alone something as detailed as what I've described, which in turn shocks me since I've always thought thinking in pictures was the norm, and couldn't image thinking any other way.

Assuming this is a result from AS, it's just one more reason I'm glad I have it.

For me it depends.
I can say that intuitivly I think in images but consciusness with internal dialogue. For istance, if I need to find the solution of a physical equation I basically plot the system in my mind (my professors used to say that I reach the solution of problems without actual thinking) but for istance If I want to write something or I think at something to say to someone I use internal dialog. My memory is almost conceptual or image oriented. Actually I'm completly unable to remember words/numbers (date, birthday, names, phone numbers, etc..) but I still remember every filosofical/physical/mathematical concept i've ever met. It's pretty strange is like my brain can make relations at super-speed but it's unable to recover data.

If you think solely in pictures, how do you obsess and worry over things?

I have constant music playback and the incessant internal dialog can be maddening.

I hate it when that happens! You have something in your head and you realize that you have no words to describe it or that you have actually lost the whole visual all together...... frustrating!

I also have "streaming music" in my head. I get verses and chorus lines stuck in my head and they play back over and over and over and over..... sometimes I even have to sing along with the music or tap out the beat..... I try not to do that one too much unless I am with someone I am really comfortable with. My daughter is the same way, so when we do things together it can be really funny. We make a lot of weird noises and do a lot of strange things...... for some reason it seems perfectly normal to us. It is only when someone gets a look at us "in action" that we start to realize that most people do not act this way. I have similar issues with movie lines. I could have a whole conversation using bits and pieces of dialogue from different movies all strung together.... of course you wouldn't know what I was talking about unless you had seen the movies that I was referencing..... and happened to "know them by heart".

My ability to communicate an idea is dictated by my relationship and comfort with that person. With some people I am absolutely at ease and able to articulate any thought. With others, I can't seem to gather the correct information to convey the message quickly enough. In those cases I am often
misunderstood.

I think in patterns.

Recent thread on same topic:

www.wrongplanet.net/postp2273668.html#2273668

Does anyone know of an online test for this sort of thing? I have wondered since I joined this forum about this question, as it comes up a lot.

I have an internal monologue - an American one, weirdly - I always have had. When I've watched a particularly influential film or tv show my inner voice often has the protagonist's accent for a few hours. When I am stressed, my inner monologue becomes more pronounced and often slowed and repetitive.

But I do generally think in pictures. At least I think I do. I don't see words in my head, I know that, but I sort of hear words in my head. I see things as well though. I'm not sure...

I find this very difficult to get my head round.

I'm a visual thinker if I'm reading something, or thinking about memories, or how to do something, I see it in pictures, I also think in textures so when I think about for example, a wooden door with gloss paint on it, I can 'feel' the paint in my mind, how it's cold and soft and lacquered, I can 'feel' the wood by mentally knocking on the door and feeling dry, heavy, grained texture beneath the paint....when I think of an object first I see it and then I feel it all in my head.

I was amazed to discover other people don't think like that, I thought everyone constantly had pictures in their head when they think.

Sometimes when I'm thinking of something, or reacting to an experience, I see someone in my mind as they might experience the thing. For instance, a little while ago I thought of something that was very "politically correct", to the point of being silly. Then I got this visual image of Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister's character in the U.K. "Life on Mars") with that smirky, "something smells a bit off" look that he gets. Other actors appear in my mental images a lot, as well. Alan Rickman very often, as well as Geraldine McEwan and a few others. It's always people who I consider to be really good actors, with interesting faces and expressions.

I suppose I see them acting out what I'm feeling, in a sense. I'm not sure, though. Like you say, these things are hard to get my head round!

For those of you that think mainly in pictures heres something funny to try. Describe your representation for these words:
objective,
subjective,
analogy,
metaphor

I have weird images for these abstract words. For objective I see a white background with all sorts of bizarre features, and subjective I see an orangy yellow window pane thats placed in between the observer and the objective background. For analogy I see two tables with model towns on them. For metaphor I see this strange transparent rotating food tray type thing (don't ask me how the hell I came up with that one").

I tend to think in cartoons. It's just because I'm a big animation fan, and sometimes it does help me.