How do you think?

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28 Nov 2018, 8:10 pm

Images, emotion, sensation, rhythm. The only possible way I can convert to thinking in words is to visualize an imaginary situation where I'm having a conversation with someone else.

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28 Nov 2018, 8:23 pm

Most of my actual thinking is unconscious and the resolution pops out unexpectedly. I can make an effort to use words and/or pictures and/or emotions, but these things do not qualify as actual thoughts, they are more like things out there that I notice.

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28 Nov 2018, 8:26 pm

Raleigh wrote:

Erratically.

Pictures, words, exploded views, webs, trails, tangents and black holes.

Einstein-Rosen bridges

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28 Nov 2018, 10:15 pm

All 4, at the same time.

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29 Nov 2018, 12:14 am

I think in images most of the time. Sometimes, I think in words and emotions.

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strings
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29 Nov 2018, 11:12 am

Gallia wrote:

strings wrote:

Gallia wrote:

how do you decipher words without the visuals? this is very interesting.

What visuals? I'm not sure really what you mean by that.

i meant the mental images

Oh, OK. I don't really know how to answer, except that words have meaning to me without the need to conjure up mental images, which I can't do.

I think there may be some evidence that although aphantasia (which is what I have) means one cannot consciously summon up mental imagery, it may, at least for some aphantasiacs, exist somewhere in the subconscious mind. For example, although I have no ability to summon up imagery of objects or people I know, I do nevertheless have some rather hard-to-define "knowledge of what they look like." And I think I do see imagery in dreams.

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29 Nov 2018, 11:47 am

I would say that I have a vivid imagination, I spend a good portion of my time daydreaming but it's of no practical use.

FallingDownMan
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29 Nov 2018, 1:34 pm

I think in a mix of both images and words. My problem is that when I get stressed, my thinking becomes 100% visual. The images never come in the correct order for speaking, and sometimes I can't find the word for the image.

As an example, a "school bus" might translate into a big yellow TRUCK, with lots of windows, and kids and a bus driver. I can see all of the things that represent the school bus, but the only word that comes to my mind is "TRUCK."

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29 Nov 2018, 1:38 pm

lostproperty wrote:

I would say that I have a vivid imagination, I spend a good portion of my time daydreaming but it's of no practical use.

When you are daydreaming do you tell yourself stories in words, or are you imagining it as in watching a movie in your head? I used to daydream a lot. It was like a movie, but seen from my perspective. For me, it was a melodrama in which people realized how much value I had. :oops:

I don't think I felt very valued as a child.

This was not necessarily anyone's fault. It was probably more the aspieness of my brain in a time when aspieness was unknown.

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29 Nov 2018, 5:45 pm

How many nations does Europe have?

I can visualize a map of the Cold War era Europe in my head, and then count them accurately from my mental picture.
I stumble a little with modern Europe, and all of those new countries made from the fragments of the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. But I can come pretty close.

Same with Africa, and states of the US.

The picture comes first, and the counting second, and done from the mental picture. So that would be an example of visual thinking.

Someone else might memorize an alphabetical list of countries on a continent.

Am better with two dimensions than three though. Some folks can visualize car engines, or molecules.

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29 Nov 2018, 8:46 pm

Anything but verbal.

I won't do well if verbal is thrown into the mix.

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29 Nov 2018, 9:57 pm

strings wrote:

I think there may be some evidence that although aphantasia (which is what I have) means one cannot consciously summon up mental imagery, it may, at least for some aphantasiacs, exist somewhere in the subconscious mind. For example, although I have no ability to summon up imagery of objects or people I know, I do nevertheless have some rather hard-to-define "knowledge of what they look like." And I think I do see imagery in dreams.

Here's a question, can you conjure things like scents or sounds? I've taught visualization to a lot of people and some people who can't do images can do emotions or other senses.

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30 Nov 2018, 12:16 am

I think in words, and quite literally can't think in images.

I'm pretty sure I've got aphantasia (described here: https://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com ... tasia.html).

It's interesting - I actually went through 37 years of life not knowing that other people could close their eyes and see pictures. I can close my eyes and think about something, but I won't actually see what I'm thinking about, and I thought it was the same for everyone.

Unlike my ASD (which is a professional diagnosis), my aphantasia is a self diagnosis.

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