Associative thinking

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I have no evidence of synesthesia. I do however do tangential thinking or some form of it whatever it's called. Tangential is where you never get to the right picture while there is some other thinking that is a form of it but you are still able to be on the right track. Like I was reading a joke online about Apple and Windows and when the joke said windows in it, I pictured windows on a building and on homes even though it said the apple had windows and you were supposed to picture windows in the apple. When I read a word, I will get other images in my head associated with it. One time when my mom said something about dots in 6th grade, I start to talk about braille because I pictures dots on the braille system and my mom told me that was her point about how my brain works differently. I'm visual so I see images and then I start seeing other ones associated with it. They can be distracting because they take me away from the real picture. Like buildings and other windows had nothing to do with the Apple and Windows joke but yet I still got pictures of windows on buildings. I even had to read the joke over and over to try and understand it.

Thats what I thought.

Why call it "associative thinking"? Why not just call it "thinking"?

Yes. Spontaneously, and unconsciously I flit from one thought tpoic to the next via tangential association. So does everyone else in the human race as far as I know.

ok, i rest my case

What "case" are you "resting"?

When one says "I rest my case" it means "that proves my point".

But in the OP you asked if associative thinking was "autism related". If everyone in the human race does it all the time then it cant be "autism related".It would mean that it was just normal thinking.

Maybe what Grandin was talking about wasn't the tendency to have a lot of associative thoughts - which I'd agree is part of thinking in general - but some inability to filter these thoughts and focus the train of thought, in a situation where you'd want to have some focus.

Having said that, I've no idea if that's an AS trait. What about being to focus intensely on one interest for ages?

That maybe that she means associative thinking is more unbridled in aspies than in NTs.

I call it my 'blinking linking thinking'.

My brain goes into hyperdrive, linking one thing after another in rapid succession.
It becomes a problem because it gets so out of control, I can't function normally.
It puts me in a state of high excitement where all I can do is babble, pace around the room and flap my hands until it passes.
It feels like a form of mania.
Maybe it is mania.

If this isn't what you're actually talking about, forget I spoke

Been doing it -yes

My wife used to ask how my responses in a conversation went to an area she wasn't expecting.
I connect the dots.
Now she can catch some of them.

In writing comedy for a weekly radio show I relied a lot on co writers that helped me with transitions. In radio it even more important due to the lack of visual cues.

It should be remembered : When Temple Grandin was younger, her thinking was primarily VISUAL.

Everybody practices "associative thinking." I believe there are autistics who are very "associative" in their thinking.

Many autistics, however, proudly announce that they think "deductively" and logically." Black and White thinking, linear thinking. The opposite of "associative" thinking.

Finally! Someone drops the other shoe and gives an example of another type of thinking than "associative"!

Dont know if its Grandin's fault, or the OP's, but it doesnt make sense to talk about one kind of thinking with out stating what the other kind of thinking is (if there is any other kind) that you're opposing it to.

So computer-like unilinear thinking would be an example of another kind of thinking. But which is more characteristic of autistics?