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Visual thinking and other kinds of thinking

Eckhart

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Some time ago there was some thread here about how people imagine other people on this forum here in their head visually. I for myself never really make myself an physical imagination of other people in the internets, and it was said maybe I am just not so much a visual thinker.

I gave that a little thought and tend to agree. When people for example describe a place with their words that I don't know (or not so well), I have trouble imagining how those words translate into a visible image (and most of the time I don't even care about it). Usually people come up with all kinds of details when describing things, and they will tell you even what kind of shoes people wear for example while I am happy when I am 100% sure about whether the person even had shoes to begin with :laugh:

Also you sure all know those diagrams etc. drawn by teachers on a blackboard or so to explain people something; I for myself had always more trouble understanding something by those diagrams (when they get very complex) than without them, they would rather confuse me :confused:

So I open this thread because I hear that it is apparently normal that people have different strenghts and weaknesses with different kinds of thinking. I would like to know what other kinds of thinking or learning styles there are and what you think are your worst and best applied ones.
 

SRT

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^ I just reread one of his memoirs and one of the chapters was this story. Very interesting.

Temple Grandin has also said something similar in regard that autistic people are primarily visual thinkers, and that some miscommunication stems from that.

To the OP: I don't know about strengths and weaknesses, but I believe that I primarily think in pictures, and I think that maybe it's given me trouble talking to other people because I find that I always have to translate what I think into words that capture the meaning I'm trying to convey. Usually this leads me to either being slow to reply, or sputtering and getting tongue tied.
 

guesswho

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I think in gremlins.

gremlins0zf.jpg
+
gremlins0zf.jpg
=2X
gremlins0zf.jpg
 

Santosha

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On IQ tests I've always scored highest on spatial intelligence, followed by linguistics. I score really high on pattern questions.. what is the next set of numbers? What number is out of place? Especially the ones that show you a picture, say with boxes and circles and lines, moving in a pattern, and you have to figure out what the next image will be.

Here is a test I really enjoyed, and found quite interesting.

http://jakemandell.com/amvi/
 

Eckhart

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@Guesswho: Thanks, that was very interesting to watch! Really liked it.

@SRT: Yeah, maybe "strength and weaknesses" was a bit one-dimensionally asked. Just simple preferences in thinking would be just as interesting to hear.

@Huxley3112: I just did your test and wanted to ask how your score was, because it seemed very easy to me and I wonder if that is now because I am good at it or because the test is just so easy. I have picked all correctly and so have a score of 100% (besides Contour Discrimination and Attention which is 95,2% / 97,8%, which is odd because when I picked everything correctly why do I not get the full score?). Some of those needed some longer thinking, but eventually I figured them all out.
 
A

Anew Leaf

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I am very spatial and visual in my head. For example, how I view a calendar year.

In my head I think of time as a spiral. The year circles around and up. The view changes as the months pass, to reflect what direction I am looking in at an one time. If I am remembering something like "when did such and such happen," then I will pull up the appropriate part of the spiral that corresponds to that year and pinpoint the day along it. The months are colored based on what color I associate the month with. As well as the numbers etc.
 

thisGuy

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I`m visual. I even do math like that sometimes. 87, when doing math is a 8x10 grid with 7 lenghts filled and 7 boxes of the 8th length filled.

I also represent time (days) visually...
[actually...days to me are a combination of sensations and visual elements - usually involve my to-do list]

Hours till a deadline is represented by a sensation...

Abstract concepts are also visual...recursion (in programming) for example...
 

skylights

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^ :yes: MI is awesome. i'm spatial - intrapersonal. when did they add extentialist? interesting.


i love feynman :)

man, i am like 200% visual.

people's names, for example. i won't remember a name said to me, but i always remember written names. and how they are spelled. i also have to take notes in class if it's a spoken lecture, otherwise i won't remember crap. visuals are SOOOO helpful to me. if lectures could all come fully illustrated, that would be excellent.

that's interesting saturned. i have a mind-calendar that looks like a big circle, like this:

__________________________january________december
___________________february____________________november
______________march______________________________october
______________april________________________________september
___________________may________________________august
__________________________june___________july

and then days i see in linear bars, just like

sunday - monday - tuesday - wednedsay - thursday - friday - saturday - sunday - monday - etc

weeks i sort of picture like a conventional calendar within months.

when someone asks me to remember a date i usually "pull up" a visualization of a month-calendar in my head and assign dates until i contextualize enough to produce the date i'm looking for.
 

Eckhart

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@Saturned / thisGuy / skylights: Thanks for the insights, that sounds quite cool! I don't think I do anything like that usually with such pictures. But it is interesting to get some awareness about how different other people think.

Especially with the date/calendar example I would like to hear how effective that method is for you. Do you feel that it is a very quick process (which might be maybe more effective than other peoples' methods) or does it involve some more or less noticeable while at least?

@Sparrow: I did not hear / read about the theory itself yet, but I knew there was something like it. I will take a look on it when I have some time :) Surely there exist some tests to this also, or?
 

INTP

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i have a mind-calendar that looks like a big circle, like this:

__________________________january________december
___________________february____________________november
______________march______________________________october
______________april________________________________september
___________________may________________________august
__________________________june___________july

and then days i see in linear bars, just like

sunday - monday - tuesday - wednedsay - thursday - friday - saturday - sunday - monday - etc.

hah i got mind calendar like that too, except january is on the left. it got stuck in my head when i was in first grade and our teacher draw it on chalk board when teaching months to us or something. similar thing with the days too, but week starts at monday..

normally i dont use much visual thinking, unless im trying to visualize something, like if i got an idea for photo and also when im remembering something that happened. but with memories its from 3rd person perspective, not from first person. its funny i have noticed that longer time its been from the moment im remembering, the "image" is further away from my head, at least most the time.

when im thinking, i kind of "talk" in my head. like well, pretty much the same way i write, but i dont write everything that goes in my head, but the things i write are pretty much exactly same thing as what i say in my head when thinking what to write. also if im thinking of doing something i do the movements in my head, kinda the same thing as talking in my head without actually opening my mouth, but its just "moving" in my head without actually moving
 

Thisica

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I use the pictures people use during the lectures, and then explain them in my way. It's hard to understand what the lecturer says, and so I often have to "work it out" for myself. Which often succeeds. I also undergo a lot of independent reading, which makes these otherwise abstract concepts relevant, and hence easier to remember.

I'm a mix of a visual-auditory and kinesthesic learner...but I have to practice more of the visualisation, especially when it comes to working out chemical reaction mechanisms :)
 

Thalassa

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Some time ago there was some thread here about how people imagine other people on this forum here in their head visually. I for myself never really make myself an physical imagination of other people in the internets, and it was said maybe I am just not so much a visual thinker.

I gave that a little thought and tend to agree. When people for example describe a place with their words that I don't know (or not so well), I have trouble imagining how those words translate into a visible image (and most of the time I don't even care about it). Usually people come up with all kinds of details when describing things, and they will tell you even what kind of shoes people wear for example while I am happy when I am 100% sure about whether the person even had shoes to begin with :laugh:

Also you sure all know those diagrams etc. drawn by teachers on a blackboard or so to explain people something; I for myself had always more trouble understanding something by those diagrams (when they get very complex) than without them, they would rather confuse me :confused:

So I open this thread because I hear that it is apparently normal that people have different strenghts and weaknesses with different kinds of thinking. I would like to know what other kinds of thinking or learning styles there are and what you think are your worst and best applied ones.

I'm best at auditory/musical. Set anything to music and I will remember it or think about it more. This is probably why I was drawn to both singing and dancing as a small child, though I never had a lot of luck with instruments even though I tried playing different ones in my late childhood and early teens. I also tend to "subvocalize" people posts like imagine their voices, and I'm turned on by the sound of men's voices sometimes.

I also picture people looking a certain way, to a degree. Visual diagrams helped me TREMENDOUSLY in college, especially, I remember. College text books which had good illustrations and charts helped me to grasp things well. I almost need things broken up into "bites" sometimes, which seems like Te bullet points. I get soooo lost in Ti walls of text and want to throw something usually.

I'm also good with anything that is intrapersonal (Fi related probably). I have the aux-Fi tendency that Beebe describes how I "teach others" by giving examples of things from my personal experience, it's effing uncanny.
 
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