Think of a cat. Now picture a cat.

Post Reply New Topic

I think I saw a fairly recent talk in which she said there were three types, so it didn't sound like it. She had a talk yesterday that may have details yet again.

I wasn't sure how much I believed because I am a visual thinker and I am more focused on writing and music than I am on, say, drawing (I used to draw maps all the time because drawing maps was cool, and I've messed around with a certain very easy to do styles of comic strip - Order of the Stick-style - but layouts were easy for me). It seems like a degree of overcategorization.

A cat. A cat is meaningless to me. You may picture a cat but that is not what you are supposed to do at all. The cat you picture is probably much different looking than the non specific cat you are supposed to be thinking about. So why can you picture a cat without any specific information? The only information I'm given is "a cat" which is why I repeat the word cat and can hold on some feeling of the essence of a cat, because that is still there but the specifics of the cat are not.

What does "non-specific cat" mean? How can you think of a non-specific cat when there is such variety in coloration and patterns on their fur? How can someone have a general idea of a "cat" without thinking of a specific cat first?

My previous post I realize may sound condescending but I don't mean for it to be. I doubt any type of thinking is better and I admit envy towards visual thinkers. I would love to keep images in my head but it's impossible for me. I can not picture my family, my house; I cannot picture anything as a whole and the parts I can picture are just watery glimpses. The assumption that all autistics are visual thinkers has me feeling a bit left out.

I don't like a lot of visual art but I like Ambuend's paintings. Alternatively, I like art with lots of details.

I guess I would be in the verbal/logic camp. My thinking has a lot of words but it's mostly repetitions. I will look at objects and describe them like written text and repeat the same things over and over to make the words come out just right. I don't know if verbal thinkers are as repetitive about it as me.

I also don't think being able to think with words automatically translates to good verbal ability. Pictorial thinkers say they must "translate" their thoughts into words. I have issues verbally speaking but it's still a mystery to me as to why. shrug

It's hard to explain. I sense the movement, outline, and presence of a cat. They certainly have a certain feeling. It's never occurred to me to think of specific cats unless I'm told to, or until now. I suppose thinking of a cat without thinking of a specific cat is treating it like an abstract concept.

It didn't read as condescending to me. I am sorry if my response sounds confrontational - I don't understand how to have a general thing without starting from specific examples, is all I meant.



I think verbal ability is a thing people learn regardless of how they think. Since most people are visual thinkers and use language, it would surprise me if this were a problem.

I do have issues speaking - not as in I have trouble saying things, but as in I have trouble saying precisely what I want to say. It's actually probably fairly mild, but can be pretty frustrating. It's the kind of thing most people wouldn't realize is a problem because I at least sound coherent. This is something I only recently became really aware of, but a friend of mine said she'd noticed it years ago. Weird.

I thought of a cat, then I pictured one, and nothing changed.

same.

Both commands caused me to 'see' an image of a cat. However, I'm not really a visual thinker.
I thought most people automatically picture stuff like that when mentioned? As in, I've seen several moments in movies and tv shows and such in which someone hears someone say something about two unattractive people having sex (or maybe the person's own parents) to which they'll say something along the lines of "thanks for the mental image!"
The way I think...my thoughts are sort of like voices speaking. Usually it sounds like my own voice but more monotone. And then there usually go many thoughts at the same time and I often imagine things visually at the same time. Sorry, I am bad at explaining. Despite thinking verbally, I am quite awful at communication.

When I think of two hideous people having sex I just get a creepy feeling and imagine awful grunting noises and think of a bed. And it's okay, I'm having trouble explaining my thought processes too.

Both bring up a images of my grandmothers cat. Although think of a cat, would also bring videos of specific behaviors, and a replay of the experience of petting it both visual and tactile (the force when it curves its back, and the weight of the cat).

Yet that is what i never understood about this, people always make it sound like they think in only one media. Almost all of my memories are visual, even allot of abstract concepts are visual, but if I'm writing something like this post it's a verbal track that repeats in my mind, changing each time until it makes sense.

I don't get what writing would be like visually, do you see the words in your head, and hear silence?

----

It helps a little if one has had a cat as a pet because then a person can think of their cat and picture their cat. There is a neurological challenge known as constructional apraxia where persons have difficulty drawing. The subject: Think of a cat - Now picture a cat - is quite a big question, along the lines of how is a printed word in a book converted into a mental picture in the brain/mind. Recall reading a How To (understand) Hyperactivity book (1981) about ADHD Inattentive by C. Thomas Wild. Wild reported that a FDA approved medicine (Tirend - contains caffeine - 100 mg/other ingredients) surprisingly allowed him to temporarily see/temporarily imagine far clearer and more accurate mental pictures in his brain/mind (not a cure). The How To (understand) Hyperactivity book, which looks a little at the neurology of ADHD, is the only book which I recall which directly addresses this topic of how normal mental images are created in the brain/mind. There is a concept known as the forest (whole) vs the trees (parts). Seeing the whole is associated with accessing the right hemisphere of the brain. That's my understanding.

For me, the difference is as follows.

When I "think of a cat", I get a visual of a blurry shaded gray outline of a cat, with the typical characteristics of a cat: whiskers, triangular ears, and a long tail.

When I "picture a cat", I get a photo-realistic visual of my friend's cat: a black-and-white domestic shorthair, doing the usual cat things like chasing objects.

When I "thought of" a cat, I automatically "pictured" a cat. An orange tabby, to be specific. I'm pretty visual though, I think. Both in thinking and learning.

Oh I get it. You need more specific information instead of filling those pieces yourself?

How about: think of a slender black cat with wide and round yellow eyes?


Interesting. On ADHD meds my short term memory (or as much as I could remember of it) became really vivid and visual. It helped me be able to find things that I has misplaced. Now my short term memory is excited by what sounds I heard at that time. Like flicking off a switch.

If someone tells me to "think of a cat", I´ll get an internal sense of the "essence" of cat. Just sort of the feeling of what the word "cat" entails. I know what a cat is, so I don´t need to visualize it. The idea of thinking of a generic, non-specific cat makes total sense to me.

If someone tells me to picture a cat, I´ll do it much like the OP does. I can either see an outline, or I can see details- vivid parts of the object, if you will- but can´t see the whole thing vividly, in its entirety. The only difference is I don´t repeat the word "cat" to myself, I just automatically see the pictures.

Oddly enough, certain phrases do automatically conjure up mental images for me- (like "don´t throw the baby out with the bathwater")- I´ll see the motion of bathwater being thrown out the door, with a small baby....again, like with the cat, either I see the main thing in a vague way, or smaller parts of it in a specific way.

So, I´m confused as to WHAT kind of a thinker I am????