Picture Thinking
Picture thinking. When I was a teenager, I began to realize that other people think in /words/. I asked people to explain how they go about thinking like this. I was told that they "hear" the words in their heads, and then understand what their own thoughts are. While reading, they would be aware that they were reading words, often hearing whispers of them as if the words were speaking to them. It became quickly evident to me that I had no concept whatsoever of what this was like. I had the ability to read a 400-page book in two days or less, and not once would I "hear" a darned thing. Instead, I'd imagine pictures of what the words described. If asked to recall the book, I could recite from memory the words off the page, because I saw them. As a result many of my book reports could be either verbatim in quotes (which I would then take paragraphs to analyze from various perspectives) or at least very lengthy, because I retained a lot of information from what I read - namely, all or almost all of it. There was almost always some form of thought on everything I "saw" in a book, and I had no trouble bringing all of my concerns forth in loquatiousness.
Over the years the "photographic" portion of my memory has faded considerably. When I copy numbers or words from one place to another, I still "imprint" the image of them on my memory for a few moments and copy the symbols from memory. It's quick and easy but as I get older I find the imprinted "line" of symbols to become shorter and shorter, so I must continue to go back and forth to get more of what I'm copying. I've attempted to try what other people do - say it out loud over and over until I can write it down - but it doesn't work too well. Normally it just confuses me and I have to keep looking back until I shut up and picture it instead.
Anyway, all this said, I ended up reading this article: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Picture_thinking
It describes how the abilities of visual-spatial learners compare to "audio-sequential" learners. I admit, I have traits of both. For instance:
The Auditory-Sequential Learner vs. The Visual-Spatial Learner VSL - I think mainly in images (or at least, ideas - not words)
VSL - I learn best when I can see what I'm learning, or draw it out as someone explains it to meUnsure - I have always been easily lost to time when immersed in something (esp. computers). This might indicate VSL. However, I have no concept of where I am in relation to something else unless I visualize it. (I need to visualize a map or landmarks to remember how to get somewhere, not the actual route to get there).
ASL - I need steps to do something for the first time. However, I tend to grasp things "outside the box" at times, too, way before I should. ?
ASL - I do learn by trial and error. However, VSL - I also learn concepts all at once.
VSL - Learns complex concepts easily, struggles with easy skills. This is why I could correctly perform an algebraic equation but screw it up because I didn't take the time to double-check my arithmetic (1+1=4, right? lol) I do the same elsewhere, too, not just with math. I have issues with watching for detail consciously, yet can readily see patterns in something I've never seen before and point them out to someone much to their amazement - "How did you see that? Do you even know what we're talking about?" "Dunno and nope, but isn't that what you're looking for?" "Why yes..." (I also hate it when someone tells me to slow down or refused to answer a more advanced question because I'm not "ready"! UGH!
VSL - I tend to see the bigger picture rather than details, even though I'm also good at details (initally)
VSL - Maps over oral directions ANY day, thank you so much!
VSL - I tend to learn whole words very easily. I don't sound them out, either. In fact, I've been corrected many times because I learned the meaning of a word but never heard it. When I go to use it in speech, I mispronounce it terribly and someone has to figure out what I mean - then they say, "Oh, you mean..."
VSL - I visualize words to spell them. I.e., "Hey, how do you spell onomatopoeia?" "onomatopoeia..."
VSL - Much better at keyboarding than handwriting OH GOD YES. Writing is SUCH a waste of time. Keyboarding is much more efficient because the words are all programmed into one's fingers. I don't need to think as I type, I simply express my thoughts as if my fingers are interpreting my thoughts into words!! I tend to type the fastest and most accurately when I'm typing out my thoughts as opposed to copying something or trying to rewrite something for others to understand perfectly... my handwriting sucks. Everyone tells me it's messy and hard to read. Mom told me I should have been a doctor!
ASL/VSL - Some think I'm well-organized, and I pride myself on having fairly good organizational skills. But truthfully, have you seen my den? Mom used to ask me how I could find anything in my room. I said I knew where most everything was. When she moved something, I had to ransack the whole place looking for it becase I knew where I put everything in my "mess."
VSL - I've learned over the years that people want proof, not ideas/correct answers, so now I tend to try organizing my steps better and am quite good at it in many circumstances. However, I have to spend extra time to figure out how to explain to someone how I'm doing something. Mom hated that. She'd say, "You always leave something out" when I thought it was perfectly logical to see something I left out, that it was obvious when it was apparently not.
ASL/VSL - I used to memorize everything as a child, but always created relationships with everything in an attempt to make more sense of it. Not sure how this one works.
VSL - very sensitive to teachers' attitudes when learning. If someone yells at me or displays impatience, there's no way in hell I'll ever EVER learn well from them again. Alternatively, if I'm already afraid of someone, I might learn /better/ from them (provided I don't fail them and they never yell at ME).
VSL - I'm never comfy with one right answer. I'm also always coming up with either multiple answers based on alternate ways of looking at a question (this drives me nuts because I often don't understand what someone asks). I've also often come up with unusual answers. For instance, "What's up?" I translated this initially as an actual question, and responded with, "The ceiling, and beyond that, the sky, planets, although some planets may not be up per se... they could be over there..." (this annoys people but it was innocent to begin with, really!)
VSL - I've developed unevenly.
VSL - Uneven grades - at least, after elementary school, where my learning depended on the teachers who gave concrete examples and written work instead of lecturing.
ASL/VSL - I love algebra, never was good at but liked the concept of chemistry, sucked at but liked geometry, and hope one day to get into physics - it sounds absolutely awesome.
VSL - Prefer to learn language from someone who knows it. First off, it's more accurate, secondly, I can ask questions immediately instead of waiting for a teacher.
VSL - I was once more academically talented, I /thought/... but truthfully, I have talents in computers, and that's technology that academically-oriented people seldom understand 100%.
VSL - I was a late bloomer (in fact I'm also still growing - between age 27 and 28 I grew an inch. Go figure.)
http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html is a site that describes how one person views his thought processes.
How did I get to this anyway? Oh yeah.
1. I opened Dictionary.com and verified the meanings of "compromise" and "comprise" in Dictionary.com so I could correctly correct someone.
2. While in Dictionary.com, I discovered "encyclopedia" in there alongside Thesaurus. I didn't know there was an encyclopedia available there so I got curious and clicked the link.
3. Needing a subject to look up, I randomly chose "Atlantis," potentially spawned by watching part of "Stargate Atlantis" last night. (Atlantis has always been an interest of mine.)
4. I read about that for a while and noted referenced links I wanted to know more about, so I began clicking some. First was the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar).
5. Following that was a link to Sargasso Sea, which I later closed.
6. Also Muddy Sea, also later closed.
7. Returned to Atlantis and clicked Gades.
8. Returned to Atlantis and after a few more clicks somehow ended up reading about Hyperborea, Nazis, ethnic cleansing, Trail of Tears, Indian Removal, Thomas Jefferson, Asperger's Syndrome, and finally, Picture Thinking... lol
I also read somewhere that visual spacial learners tend to write convolutedly. Boy, do I do this... I jump from one thing to another easily and go all over describing something! (Haven't you noticed?)
Later laters,
~nv
Over the years the "photographic" portion of my memory has faded considerably. When I copy numbers or words from one place to another, I still "imprint" the image of them on my memory for a few moments and copy the symbols from memory. It's quick and easy but as I get older I find the imprinted "line" of symbols to become shorter and shorter, so I must continue to go back and forth to get more of what I'm copying. I've attempted to try what other people do - say it out loud over and over until I can write it down - but it doesn't work too well. Normally it just confuses me and I have to keep looking back until I shut up and picture it instead.
Anyway, all this said, I ended up reading this article: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Picture_thinking
It describes how the abilities of visual-spatial learners compare to "audio-sequential" learners. I admit, I have traits of both. For instance:
The Auditory-Sequential Learner vs. The Visual-Spatial Learner VSL - I think mainly in images (or at least, ideas - not words)
VSL - I learn best when I can see what I'm learning, or draw it out as someone explains it to meUnsure - I have always been easily lost to time when immersed in something (esp. computers). This might indicate VSL. However, I have no concept of where I am in relation to something else unless I visualize it. (I need to visualize a map or landmarks to remember how to get somewhere, not the actual route to get there).
ASL - I need steps to do something for the first time. However, I tend to grasp things "outside the box" at times, too, way before I should. ?
ASL - I do learn by trial and error. However, VSL - I also learn concepts all at once.
VSL - Learns complex concepts easily, struggles with easy skills. This is why I could correctly perform an algebraic equation but screw it up because I didn't take the time to double-check my arithmetic (1+1=4, right? lol) I do the same elsewhere, too, not just with math. I have issues with watching for detail consciously, yet can readily see patterns in something I've never seen before and point them out to someone much to their amazement - "How did you see that? Do you even know what we're talking about?" "Dunno and nope, but isn't that what you're looking for?" "Why yes..." (I also hate it when someone tells me to slow down or refused to answer a more advanced question because I'm not "ready"! UGH!
VSL - I tend to see the bigger picture rather than details, even though I'm also good at details (initally)
VSL - Maps over oral directions ANY day, thank you so much!
VSL - I tend to learn whole words very easily. I don't sound them out, either. In fact, I've been corrected many times because I learned the meaning of a word but never heard it. When I go to use it in speech, I mispronounce it terribly and someone has to figure out what I mean - then they say, "Oh, you mean..."
VSL - I visualize words to spell them. I.e., "Hey, how do you spell onomatopoeia?"
VSL - Much better at keyboarding than handwriting OH GOD YES. Writing is SUCH a waste of time. Keyboarding is much more efficient because the words are all programmed into one's fingers. I don't need to think as I type, I simply express my thoughts as if my fingers are interpreting my thoughts into words!! I tend to type the fastest and most accurately when I'm typing out my thoughts as opposed to copying something or trying to rewrite something for others to understand perfectly... my handwriting sucks. Everyone tells me it's messy and hard to read. Mom told me I should have been a doctor!
ASL/VSL - Some think I'm well-organized, and I pride myself on having fairly good organizational skills. But truthfully, have you seen my den? Mom used to ask me how I could find anything in my room. I said I knew where most everything was. When she moved something, I had to ransack the whole place looking for it becase I knew where I put everything in my "mess."
VSL - I've learned over the years that people want proof, not ideas/correct answers, so now I tend to try organizing my steps better and am quite good at it in many circumstances. However, I have to spend extra time to figure out how to explain to someone how I'm doing something. Mom hated that. She'd say, "You always leave something out" when I thought it was perfectly logical to see something I left out, that it was obvious when it was apparently not.
ASL/VSL - I used to memorize everything as a child, but always created relationships with everything in an attempt to make more sense of it. Not sure how this one works.
VSL - very sensitive to teachers' attitudes when learning. If someone yells at me or displays impatience, there's no way in hell I'll ever EVER learn well from them again. Alternatively, if I'm already afraid of someone, I might learn /better/ from them (provided I don't fail them and they never yell at ME).
VSL - I'm never comfy with one right answer. I'm also always coming up with either multiple answers based on alternate ways of looking at a question (this drives me nuts because I often don't understand what someone asks). I've also often come up with unusual answers. For instance, "What's up?" I translated this initially as an actual question, and responded with, "The ceiling, and beyond that, the sky, planets, although some planets may not be up per se... they could be over there..." (this annoys people but it was innocent to begin with, really!)
VSL - I've developed unevenly.
VSL - Uneven grades - at least, after elementary school, where my learning depended on the teachers who gave concrete examples and written work instead of lecturing.
ASL/VSL - I love algebra, never was good at but liked the concept of chemistry, sucked at but liked geometry, and hope one day to get into physics - it sounds absolutely awesome.
VSL - Prefer to learn language from someone who knows it. First off, it's more accurate, secondly, I can ask questions immediately instead of waiting for a teacher.
VSL - I was once more academically talented, I /thought/... but truthfully, I have talents in computers, and that's technology that academically-oriented people seldom understand 100%.
VSL - I was a late bloomer (in fact I'm also still growing - between age 27 and 28 I grew an inch. Go figure.)
http://www.grandin.com/inc/visual.thinking.html is a site that describes how one person views his thought processes.
How did I get to this anyway? Oh yeah.
1. I opened Dictionary.com and verified the meanings of "compromise" and "comprise" in Dictionary.com so I could correctly correct someone.
2. While in Dictionary.com, I discovered "encyclopedia" in there alongside Thesaurus. I didn't know there was an encyclopedia available there so I got curious and clicked the link.
3. Needing a subject to look up, I randomly chose "Atlantis," potentially spawned by watching part of "Stargate Atlantis" last night. (Atlantis has always been an interest of mine.)
4. I read about that for a while and noted referenced links I wanted to know more about, so I began clicking some. First was the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar).
5. Following that was a link to Sargasso Sea, which I later closed.
6. Also Muddy Sea, also later closed.
7. Returned to Atlantis and clicked Gades.
8. Returned to Atlantis and after a few more clicks somehow ended up reading about Hyperborea, Nazis, ethnic cleansing, Trail of Tears, Indian Removal, Thomas Jefferson, Asperger's Syndrome, and finally, Picture Thinking... lol
I also read somewhere that visual spacial learners tend to write convolutedly. Boy, do I do this... I jump from one thing to another easily and go all over describing something! (Haven't you noticed?)
Later laters,
~nv
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