Are you a visual thinker?

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This is very similar to how I think - although, for me, the colours of words, letters, numbers, people etc. are just 'there' rather than attributed. Useful for spelling (wrong letters give a word the wrong colour)!

Throughout school and university I relied on something similar to 'mind-mapping'. In order to make sense of text/information given verbally, I needed to make it visual - and, once I'd done this, learning/remembering was pretty straightforward. Indeed, without a visual memory I have no idea how people can remember biochemical pathways!

A couple of examples of visual thinking that I experience.

At my previous job at the public library, we had to pull materials to fill requests daily. Books and other materials that were in order were easy. The CDs were not. I wouldn't look for those by title or call number. I'd have a picture in my mind of what the item looked like and I'd look for something that matched the picture. It was much faster.

In my current job, I have to check call numbers for accuracy. If I actually read the call number and compare that, it takes much longer than if I take a mental snapshot of the call number and look for a match.

ach dee seventy eight oh nine es six ninteen seventy four seventy five

vs.

Actually I suppose they are just 'there' for me too! It's not a conscious thing.

Altough when I remember things, they tend to be film-like (Yes, I'm english), as far as 'true' learning goes, I'm primarly tactile, with auditory becoming a close second and visual way behind.

That sounds a lot like me, too. Except instead of a "photographic memory" or semi-photographic I think of my mind as having impressionist paintings, which I can control, to work with. The overall concepts are represented visually in my thoughts and simple specific words, like "cake", have more detail than abstract concepts, such as "purity".

I once worked at an army post and if I saw an acquaintance out of uniform I could recognize them and call them by name by mentally recalling a time when I saw them at work and I could simply re-read their name tag from memory. Of course, with the soldiers I worked with on a daily basis, I had no problem recognizing their faces, but they often would change jobs every week or 2 and a constant flow of new people came to our photo studio.

My wife always thought it was very creepy, that I could remember the name of someone I saw only once, 2 months before or more. But I wasn't keeping them in an active part of my memory, that would be creepy, I was just thinking of a picture of them standing at our counter, for instance.

The fact that I was usually right, seemed to bother her. I don't know how else to remember things, other than to make an impressionistic image of it in my mind.

Do you tend to not look specifically at one thing at a time, in rapid succession? Or rather like me, I look at a wall of shelves, defocus and take in the whole wall at first, then narrowing it down to possibilities that get a closer, focussed look and zero in on the item you're searching for? I find when I'm looking for something I can go much faster if I look at the whole thing and quickly eliminate places where it's not, leaving only a few places that could possibly match. I don't really know how to explain it well.

I'm more visual than anything else, but alas I don't have picture thinking. I tend to think in concepts which I can then translate into words, although my imagination is also very vivid and I regularly daydream (during biology lessons.)

That's the best time for a ride for many reasons, less pollution, fewer cars to get in your way, cooler temperature.

One thing to think of is if you see cars coming your way, it is most likely either a police car or a drunk, so it's a good idea to avoid cars in general, besides they stink like hell.

This whole concept is to "abstract" for me...I would really like to take a test to see if I am or am not.
I know ,when I am reading...I see whats happening very clearly.I am lousy trying to recall things to be a creative writer....I really wish I could do this.I seem to be oblivious to my surroundings,what people look like or what they are wearing,what the room looked like is easier or details I saw when walking in the woods.I do have very detailed dreams,some I can describe better then things that have actually happened to me.I love words but I also love pictures of "detailed" nature...I dont know....

Yes,I am a VERY visual thinker.I probally wouldn't be good at art if I wasn't.



-SpaceCase

I guess I'm in the middle. In dreams for instance, or when picturing a scene while reading, I don't see an image of it happening, it's sort of as if concepts moved around. For instance, if my mom is walking towards me (in my mind picture), I don't see an image of her, but I don't think "my mom is walking towards me" either; I see the concept of her moving through the concept of space towards the concept of me.

I am a very strong visual thinker and have an uncanny photographic memory. For example, I can look at a topographic map of a place like a small city in a hilly setting with a river running through it that I have never seen nor heard of before and immediately (and accurately!) envision what the place looks like on the ground in person.

This has held me back in places where language coding and decoding skills are at a premium, especially with computers. 'Command line' interfaces and I cannot get along. I need, absolutely NEED, a user-friendly and logical 'graphical' user interface and thus the guys at Apple Computer will forever be my heroes. OTOH, as you can see, I have a very good grasp of written English (American dialect), although I am not the World's fastest typist and have to hit the 'delete' key an average of at least twice in each line of text. When I am reading things like news articles, I quickly skim over them, picturing in my mind what they are saying. I will then reread the parts that are of special interest to me, usually several times and much more slowly, to get clearer pictures.

Mike

I'm pretty much in the same boat. The visual part explains why I have the hardest time keeping from busting out laughing if I've heard a really good joke lately.

I think Im mostly visual.. if someone says something to me unless I make a concious effort to remember it (transcribing it to text in my mind) Ill forget it within 30 seconds.

When Im reading after the first page its like I dont see the book or text anymore.. its like watching a movie and before I know it its been 3 hours and a few hundred pages.. but thats probably just from practice

Facts I cant remember but things I have seen or can create a 3d mental model of I never forget.

i'm good visually if its something im interested in, otherwise forget it. i think i learn best by reading with a few illistraitions to desribe what i've just read.

My brother and I both like to read history books. However, he is more interested in finding out what the author has to say, while I am more interested in finding out about different time periods, e.g. the setting, the clothes people wore, what weapons different armies used, than in the actual narrative. After I learn about the period, I might think of a scene set in that period and play a short movie in my head featuring that setting. Does this make me a more visual thinker?