Aspie question - What type of thinker are you?

[IAmNotPrinceHamlet]

Read the following (it's long, but stay with me on this!):

 

Types of Thinking

There appear to be two basic types of thinking in intellectually gifted people who have Asperger's or high functioning autism. The highly social, verbal thinkers who are in the educational system need to understand that their thought processes are different. The two types are totally visual thinkers like me; and the music, math and memory thinkers which are described in Thomas Sowell's book, Late Talking Children. I have interviewed several of these people, and their thoughts work in patterns in which there are no pictures. Sowell reports that in the family histories of late talking, music math and memory children, 74 percent of the families will have an engineer or a relative in a highly technical field such as physics, accounting, or mathematics. Most of these children also had a relative that played a musical instrument.

 

Every thought I have is represented by a picture. When I think about a dog, I see a series of pictures of specific dogs, such as my student's dog or the dog next door. There is no generalized verbal 'dog' concept in my mind. I form my dog concept by looking for common features that all dogs have, and no cats have. For example, all of the different breeds of dogs have the same kind of nose. My thought process goes from specific pictures to general concepts, where as most people think from general to specific. I have no vague, abstract, language-based concepts in my head, only specific pictures.

 

When I do design work, I can run three-dimensional, full motion "video" images of the cattle handling equipment in my head. I can "test run" the equipment on the "virtual reality" computer that is in my imagination. Visual thinkers who are expert computer programmers have told me that they can see the entire program "tree," and then they write the code on each branch.

 

It is almost as if I have two consciences. Pictures are my real thoughts, and language acts as a narrator. I narrate from the "videos" and "slides" I see in my imagination. For example, my language narrator might say, "I can design that." I then see a video of the equipment I am designing in my imagination. When the correct answer pops into my head, it is a video of the successful piece of equipment working. At this point, my language narrator says, "I figured out how to do it." In my mind there is no subconscious. Images are constantly passing through the computer screen of my imagination. I can see thought processes that others have covered up with language. I do not require language for either consciousness or for thinking.

 

When I learned drafting for doing my design work, it took time to train my visual mind to make the connection between the symbolic lines on a layout drawing and an actual building. To learn this I had to take the set of blueprints and walk around in the building, looking at the square concrete support columns, seeing how the little squares on the drawing related to the actual columns. After I had "programmed" my brain to read drawings, the ability to draw blueprints appeared almost by magic. It took time to get information in, but after I was "programmed," the skill appeared rather suddenly. Researchers who have studied chess players state that the really good chess players have to spend time inputting chess patterns into their brains. I can really relate to this. When I design equipment I take bits of pictures and pieces of equipment I have seen in the past and re-assemble them into new designs. It is like taking things out of the memory of a CAD computer drafting system, except I can re-assemble the pieces into three-dimensional, moving videos. Constance Mibrath and Bryan Siegal at the University of California found that talented, autistic artists assemble the whole from the parts. It is "bottom up thinking," instead of "top down thinking.?

 

Having just read an article by Temple Grandin, the above of which is an extract, I was wondering if the Aspies here agree that they are a specific type of thinker? Personally (as an Aspie), I definitely fall into the catagory of Music, Maths and Memory thinker. My Aspie OH falls into the Visual thinker catagory. I'm not sure about my son, but I think he's the same as me.

 

Look forward to your opinions.

 

 

Full article is here.

 

 

(I came across the above article whilst looking for information on Chess and Aspies, as I think a certain ex-American, ex-World Champion Chess player is an Aspie. He is an ex-American, by the way. He renounced his US citizenship.)

[Suze]

My son is an absolute visual thinker, and after reading the article I believe I may be to.When ever I think I play the image in my mind as a film, my thoughts of my kids are replays of them doing things, but isn,t that how everyone,s mind works?..........I never thought it unusual.What is the NT way of thinking and imagining things?

[big mamma]

I am NT ( I think! ) but can recall 'memories' in great detail because when I think about a situation I replay how it happened like watching a film in my head. My husband says this doesn't happen when he thinks of past situations but I'm not sure how typical this kind or recall is.

[Kerre]

I talk to myself in my head. This wastes time. That's why I'm not very good at most things.

[IAmNotPrinceHamlet]

I talk to myself in my head. This wastes time. That's why I'm not very good at most things.

 

 

I talk to myself out loud! It's the only way to have a conversation with someone on the same wavelength as me. Seriously, I do talk to myself. I also have this weird tendency to play-act conversations I'd like to have. Obviously, I only do this on my own, otherwise people would think me mad. I can spend all day on my own rehearsing conversations with people. They never happen for real, though.

 

Back to the memory thing; having thought about it a little more, I've realised that I visualize words. When writing stuff, I can see the words in my mind. Weird, eh?

[ceecee]

IAMNOTPRINCEHAMLET

 

I do that too rehearse conversations in my head I am going to have with people that often don't happen

 

I feel quite spooked now

 

I think talking to yourself both out loud and in your head is quite common for aspies.Could be wrong on this but I am sure i have read it somewhere and it has gone into my memory bank

 

 

I also visualise words in my head which is why at school my spelling was very good.

 

I also re-enact situations in my head like a film.i've never realised I do thease things really untili stopped and thought about it.

Edited January 19, 2006 by ceecee

[IAmNotPrinceHamlet]

IAMNOTPRINCEHAMLET

 

I do that too rehearse conversations in my head I am going to have with people that often don't happen

 

I feel quite spooked now

 

I think talking to yourself both out loud and in your head is quite common for aspies.Could be wrong on this but I am sure i have read it somewhere and it has gone into my memory bank

I also visualise words in my head which is why at school my spelling was very good.

 

I also re-enact situations in my head like a film.i've never realised I do thease things really untili stopped and thought about it.

 

 

 

Ohh... I do the re-enacting thing, too! I've realised that I visualize routes in my mind, though. I've always had a thing for maps (motorways, the London Underground, etc). You should have seen my bedroom when I was a teenager. You couldn't see the walls for various posters and leaflets on the LU.

[ceecee]

The maps and london underground is a very aspie thing.

 

Although i personally have no interest in trains or maps of the Londom underground or otherwise.

 

I think you can get a book or maps on disused stations as well.

[UltraMum]

My slightly late talking son has a maths and memory 'style' - not into music but there's time ...

 

Sowell reports that in the family histories of late talking, music math and memory children, 74 percent of the families will have an engineer or a relative in a highly technical field such as physics, accounting, or mathematics.

 

His dad is an accountant and I excelled at mathematics at school ... [bit rusty now!] I then went on to become a therapy radiographer and studied radiation physics in great detail, taking extra qualifications.

 

I'm NT as far as I know! I have a totally visual memory - can look at a map and then use the image in my head to navigate by ... which comes in handy as DH can't map-read to save his life! DS does the navigating if we need it!

 

DH has definite AS tendencies (commented on by several friends and family members ) [but got cross when I mentioned it to him ] and has an incredible memory.

[Strange girl]

I am visual picture thinker, and my son is music, math and memory. Although I think we both use both ways to a degree, one way is more prominant. It's a good question, how do NT's think then?

[mossgrove]

I talk to myself out loud! It's the only way to have a conversation with someone on the same wavelength as me. Seriously, I do talk to myself. I also have this weird tendency to play-act conversations I'd like to have. Obviously, I only do this on my own, otherwise people would think me mad. I can spend all day on my own rehearsing conversations with people. They never happen for real, though.

 

I do this too! I don't always realise that I am doing it though. My better half often points out to me that I am talking to myself in public, usually mouthing words silently or under my breath. Most of the time it is me imagining a converation that I may or may not have.

 

 

Simon

Edited January 20, 2006 by mossgrove

[Will]

Ohh... I do the re-enacting thing, too! I've realised that I visualize routes in my mind, though. I've always had a thing for maps (motorways, the London Underground, etc). You should have seen my bedroom when I was a teenager. You couldn't see the walls for various posters and leaflets on the LU.

 

Yay So I'm not barking mad after all! I do the whole working out conversations with people - word for word, exactly what to say, because it's harder to do on the spur of the moment... the only problem is that the responses are near impossible to predict & the conversations rarely/never take place, but the plan or fantasy conversations are a regular occurence for me.

 

And I love the London Underground and maps as well. I have more than one London Underground map on my wall and I have considered getting the sign. I also enjoy reading maps during or before journeys, regardless of destination, and finding exact routes, and I nearly always have to have the list of directions from the AA route finder, which keeps me amused through the longest journeys. That, and the fact that I think I'm the only person in the world who has a fascination with the M6 motorway...

[Jill]

I am visual picture thinker, and my son is music, math and memory. Although I think we both use both ways to a degree, one way is more prominant. It's a good question, how do NT's think then?

 

 

I'm NT and I definitely think in pictures.

 

Actually, to relax at night when I am going to sleep, I lay there with my eyes closed & pictures come to me of things I am not thinking of at all. These are very clear & can be of anything - the view I see when driving a car, an open field, people in a crowd. My hubby thinks I am very odd, but I am always asleep within minutes of putting my head on the pillow!

[UltraMum]

If people like maps then try Google Earth

It's a fantastic programme, although it may not run on older computers:

Recommended configuration:

 

• Operating system: Windows XP; Mac OS X (10.4)
• CPU: 1.2 GHz
• Free Hard Disk Space: 2GB
• System memory (RAM): 512MB
• Video RAM: 32MB
• Screen Resolutions: 1280x1024, 32-bit color
• Internet: 768 kbps

[microsoft_admin]

If people like maps then try Google Earth

It's a fantastic programme, although it may not run on older computers:

Recommended configuration:

 

• Operating system: Windows XP; Mac OS X (10.4)

• CPU: 1.2 GHz

• Free Hard Disk Space: 2GB

• System memory (RAM): 512MB

• Video RAM: 32MB

• Screen Resolutions: 1280x1024, 32-bit color

• Internet: 768 kbps

 

 

i am vishual thinker i can litrily see other dimenshions and particals and it is scary sometimes seeing particals and other dimenshions but it is fun at the same time watching electrons fly past

 

to me the whole world is like the static on a tv screen

[bookwyrm]

That is a very interesting article.

 

I find the different kinds of thinkers a bit perplexing though. I am definitely a visual learner, and have a partially photographic memory, but when things get more complex, such as attemting to visualise quantum mechanics say, my thinking can't really be called visual, and definitely not verbal. Almost diagramatic is the only way I can describe it, and sort of twisty turny until it feels right, and then it *feels* as if the concept has clicked. There seems to be a tactile element to it almost, sort of smoothe and satisfying. But when you say dog I get a picture of a dog, or a car or whatever. And I find things by picturing what I was doing when I lost it. I also picture words when I hear them if they do not have a picture associated with them. And words like convex generate a picture of a curved surface, bulging towards me.

So am I a visual thinker or the other kind? Or a combination?

 

 

I thought it interesting that there is a correlation between mathmatical ability and allergies and being short sighted. I am short sighted and have allergies, and I am pretty darn good at maths.

Edited January 23, 2006 by bookwyrm

[Bullet]

When I am thinking something, or when I'm saying something, or listening to someone else say someone, I see a picture in my mind very clearly of what the thought/conversation is. Is that what they mean? If so then I must be a visual thinker.

[microsoft_admin]

i got plenty of aspie q's