Can you imagine this?

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I can easily imagine that. In fact, I have rather fertile imagination.

Here you go: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt78601.html

I also found it easy. Being able to visualise something or not in your head - is not a diagnostic criteria for Aspergers.

I can't see pictures in my head, but i could draw those things.
For me it's deciding that it's my room (and knowing what is in my room), and my chairs at the dinner table and who those people are instead of seeing it.

I don't know about driving a car but i'm not bad at the others.

Last edited by RemiBeaker on 24 Feb 2013, 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

AS and NVLD are kind of two perspectives on similar things... NVLD is like AS as a learning disability or a neurological disorder. I think they're similar enough to be put in the same category for the purposes of therapy and education. People diagnosable with NVLD are probably also diagnosable with AS or another autism spectrum disorder, but the NVLD perspective is still a helpful one, with its focus on cognition and learning instead of social development.

I see a bare room painted in a light olive green with a church shaped window (plain glass not painted) in front of me.

In front of that are 3 large victorian style dinning chairs decorated with a light red pattern (upholstery seat) with mahogany wood carved backs (similar to that of the frame of the church shaped window). They are lined up in a row. On the outside chairs there are two gentlemen dressed in Victorian suits and looking at a pocket watch.

I walk in and sit down between them.

I am not diagnosed with an ASD (my diagnosis is depression and social anxiety) I only suspect the possibility of it as I share many traits with those on the spectrum.

I do, however, have a very vivid imagination and always have had.

Gahhh. Even trying to imagine my living room is impossible for me. It's just black. I mean I can even try to talk out my living room to myself thinking it'll be easier but I still can't imagine it in my head. I'm going to try that scale test. Post results after. Also, don't know if this matters but with memories while they are incredibly detailed I can't like pause and walk around in them. I can only see them from my pov and can only see exactly what I saw.

Also, yes- I'm a terrible judge of distance or height (even lengths of time), I have bad depth perception and I definitely cannot draw. Like even those "draw in the grid" exercises I can't ever get the proportions correct. I can ride a bike and I'm a decent driver but a cautious one because my depth perception is weird. I think gaming has made this easier though honestly.

Ah, my living room:

Standing on the West side, there is a recliner right in front of me, facing east, with a glass end table on the north of the chair. Across from the room is a love seat with a combination footrest thing/container, filled with board games. On the south side of the room is a couch with a metal and glass coffee table in front of it and across from the couch is the television set. To the east of the TV are improvised shelves (from boards and cinderblocks) filled with DVDs and video tapes. To the west is my mother's bedroom door. Further to the west is the computer desk with a cloth and wood folding "director's" chair. In the corner to the east of the couch is a corner china cabinet (my grandmother's). Hanging from the center of the ceiling is a lamp that lights the entire room fairly brightly. The couch, recliner, loveseat, and footrest thing are all a dark navyish but not quite navy blue.

Starting approximately with the recliner and going west is light brown carpet, and hardwood behind the recliner. Directly behind the recliner is the dining room table, although this is technically not a dining room. A bit south and west of the recliner is a second china cabinet with various fantasy-themed crystal decorations that light up. To the west of the computer is a "bar" bordering on the kitchen, with an unused aquarium sitting atop it. Right up against the bar, on the south side, is a small bookshelf filled with children's books.

Behind the loveseat are three windows with Venetian blinds. Sometimes the blinds are open, sometimes closed, and sometimes drawn entirely.

It's not hard to keep the details in mind because I see it every day. Still, I can visualize all that and more (I felt like some descriptions were getting overly verbose and cut them). I can also remember the layouts for every other living room in every other house I've lived in.

I'm almost completely sure that I would have been able to do that when I was younger.

I'm almost completely sure that I would have been able to do that when I was younger.

The room? Check. The chairs? Check. Myself? Sure (not real good on even my face though!). Other people? Forget it.
As a kid, I had no problem building stuff from Lincoln logs, Legos (before they had the cool. expensive stuff) and tinkertoys. I also had many Hot Wheels. I never imagined people in the buildings or people in the car (except myself a couple of times, but even that was rare). They were just buildings, cars, trucks, what not.
This seems a common phenomena amongst people on the Spectrum. I did not lack for imagination, except where it concerned other members of Homo sapiens. I believe this is the "Theory of Mind" problems many have, not being able to put ourselves in the heads of other people.

Sincerely,
Matthew

Imagining people having a physical presence is not really a matter of social imagination. If you ask me to visualize this room with three chairs and two other people + myself, I can. Then you ask me "Who are they?" and "why are they there?" and that is something I cannot answer.

This is no problem for me at all. I have very strong visual thinking (although my verbal thinking is good too). I can see it as a still image or a video, with blank, known or imagined faces. I tend to focus on one area at a time and build up the image from that. Then, it's just as solid as the real world.