Is this what it means to think in pictures?

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When I read/think about something, I always have a picture in my mind, though I don't always realize it's there. The picture is almost always a place, such as a room in my old house or my old backyard; I see my old house a lot.

When I started writing this, I could see the jazz band room at my old intermediate school. The pictures rarely have to do with what I'm thinking about and I usually don't even noticed them. They're kind of like screensavers.

Now I see my old room. The strange thing is, I've seen this exact picture while reading something in the past, so now it's linking me to that memory.

On other subforum, a thread got derailed, and the 'screensaver' changed. At first I saw the upstairs bathroom in my old house, but now when I read that thread it takes me somewhere else entirely: the storage room next to the jazz band room at my intermediate school. I keep hoping someone will get the thread back on track so the screensaver will change back, but it's probably too late.

Sometimes I won't like something because of the 'screensaver' I see in my mind, along with the feelings I get from its colors, shape, etc.

I don't understand the concept of thinking in pictures vs. words. I see a picture in my mind, but I often hear words as I think. If I try to visualize the words, they often get jumbled up and I have to make a conscious effort to unscramble them and make it look how I want it to.

Yes, that's visual thinking.. but for myself, and I assume others, the images have tended to be much more on topic & relevant to what I'm thinking about.

If the pictures in you mind rarely have to do with what you are thinking about, but a certain thought or visual (like the screen saver) is associated with an unrelated visual, it could be related to synesthesia.

No, thinking in pictures means the pictures are the thoughts that you have, not pictures of places that are unrelated to other verbal thoughts.

I've considered that too. I have a few types of synesthesia: grapheme-color, personality-grapheme, personality-object, possible sound-kinetic, and I also see colors and pictures when I hear music, but people with sound-color synesthesia describe seeing what looks like fireworks in the minds, which I don't experience.

I've tried Googling this screensaver thing before, but I couldn't find a name for it.

Is it like when your memories are played out like a movie?

Or is that something else completely?

Okay, I suppose I do that too, but I really can't imagine anyone not thinking in pictures.

I believe that's something else entirely. They're kind of just screenshots from my memory.

I don't know that I think in pictures

I know when I see images I feel more focused. If I think in words they are often confused and confusing. But I can't draw or recognize faces at all. As far as thinking, I am either seeing images or thinking in words. If I try to put it together my brain doesn't let that happen well at all. It's one or the other, and I feel more calm if I let images not words prevail.

If someone is explaining something to me over the phone then I like to be able to convert the words into images and build a picture.

Is that what you mean?

You mean about the screensavers? No. I'm not sure if I can do that. I don't do well with verbal instructions; I have to see it.

I think in pictures and images. I find it hard to explain what it's like, cannot imagine 'seeing' the world otherwise...

Every thought that I have is in a picture. I also have dreams that are very visual. I also need to be shown things when I'm learning things.

Here is an article by Temple Grandin, called "How does visual thinking work in the mind of a person with autism? A personal account" http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.think ... erson.html

p.s. There is also a very interesting paragraph about how she found out how to stop her hearing loss.

I was going to say synesthesia too.

Basically thinking in pictures is like this:

Apple. You see an apple. The actual image of the apple.

A lot of my memories come in the form of visual images. Like if I was trying to remember a street name I'd see the street sign or some landscape on that street. I remember the inside of buildings too like a music venue.

I get visual associative thoughts too. Someone might say something and an image comes up in my mind. It's a bit like the screensaver thing. I think it's kind of cool.

I think they're associative thoughts, but the reason I connect certain pictures to what I'm thinking despite them having no obvious relation is the strange part. Why does a thread about sexism paint me a picture of a bathroom? But then, I suppose I could apply that sort of thinking to my other types of synesthesia, too. Why is '5' so vividly red? And why does he quarrel with '3'? Why is 'N' such a jerk?

It's hard to make sense of that sort of thing, but I suppose that's because there's not really any sense to be made. But I have made one connection.

Very often?but not always?I find that the thoughts triggering memories of my old house are pleasant ones. And I almost never see images of my current house, where I've been living for six years. I don't hate my current house, but rather indifferent, while I sometimes miss my old house because it is where I lived the first decade of my life.