abstract thinking

Post Reply New Topic

I have aphantasia, which means I have no mental imagery at all. As far as I can tell, all my thinking is done by having an "inner conversation" with myself. So language is essential for me, and I have no idea what I did as an infant before I learned a language. Maybe it is no coincidence that I have no memories of times before I learned a language.

I seem to do OK in my career, which is in theoretical physics. But I don't feel I do much abstract thinking; I depend on writing down the equations.

I can usually understand an idea much quicker if there's a (concrete) example given. The general (abstract) explanation can be much harder to take in, yet once I've worked through the example, I usually get the general idea from that, though it might not be easy to explain it clearly. But example is a well-established teaching tool, suggesting most people benefit from it, so I'm not sure if my preference for the concrete is stronger than that of the general population. Maybe it's just measuring social status and education?

Oh wow...Autistic people struggle with abstract thinking? I guess I'm not autistic after all and I have something else entirely. I have no problems with abstract thinking. I am very, very, VERY good at abstract thinking. Not trying to brag or anything, I'm just emphasizing that it's one of my strengths. Another one of my strengths is verbal language. But I kept seeing commercials for "The Good Doctor" that said people with autism struggle with verbal language which is confusing...I might have NVLD, I've been meaning to look into it more. Either that or something that hasn't been identified in psychology yet. Which isn't far-fetched. They change the conditions in the DSM all the time.

NLDer here and very good at abstract thinking and pattern recognition. It's mostly concrete and visual thinking that I suck at. My Fluid Reasoning is in the gifted range while Visual Spatial is dull normal. As for research into it, I've seen mostly mixed results. Autistics usually do well on the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test which measures abstract thinking so that contradicts the stereotype of ASD individuals being weak at it.

Images associated with 'abstract thinking' - images of spirals pique my interest.

https://www.google.com/search?as_st=y&t ... =itp:photo

I'm very good at it but i do need to be able to visualise the concepts before i can digest them mentally. i really struggled with calculus at school mainly because i couldn't relate to the 'why' of things and couldn't visualise the rules. in my school maths was taught as a sequence of things to memorise and being unable to contextualise it put me off. I used to get Fs in all my papers until i found a teacher (who was kind of a mathematical genius) who in a matter of a couple of lessons showed me how to visualise some simple mathematical problems in terms of geometry and then i eventually managed to get a B. i wish i had had more teachers like him to make me more passionate about maths. id like to go back to it one day


they say people with ADHD have good abstract/ visual thinking and i think that's probably why though i am also good with patterns and remembering details once digested in my internal library (which is a bit messy atm and in need of a good tidying up).

I am an extreme visual thinker/learner, but can also do abstract thinking almost as well. Pure verbal thinking is not one of my strengths though. (I struggled with grammar classes growing up.) It is very hard for me to think in words alone. When I write papers, I have a mental concept map that I automatically do, rather than to think about each word/sentence in the document. It used to take me a long time to write papers until I unlocked this ability.

I guess you can manage concepts by instigating concrete maps inside your head and paint around your whole environment, but instead of bringing a cure, it automatically creates a hangover, whereby nobody can retain enough information just to let the day slide by, without malpractice being brought to attention.
It's confusing not to manage your own repetitive behaviour or diagnosis, as nothing is completely concrete in any literal sense or meaning, and dividing a complex situation to control a dividing factor or cause only makes the information harder to retain or absorb.
I guess you can remain a friend of a friend, but in hindsight the obligation remains the same as the stats, so nothing really changes, just mirrors everything a person has or hasn't been saying by reactive rationale. Abstract Thought.
Abstract thoughts vary in people, they can either be brought on by fear, memories or programme dump of some insubordinate clause. Someone with hidden potential, probably with a fear of the unknown, inadvertently tries to access their clauses to abstract an acute definition or reasoning that commutes with an unwanted definition or hidden truth.
Do the facts sometimes hide the truth for fear of bringing up an unwanted definition? or fear of sussing out the truth in the first place. All I know is it highlights and enriches a person, by finding out the reason a fear factor is being implemented in order to filter the abstract truth which, only instils more repletion and fear for enhanced definition complimented by philosophical awareness in the first place.