Brain freezes when processing verbal instructions. Why?

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I have experienced similar problems.

If someone starts explaining af list of just 5 things you must do at some point, it may be difficult to remember.




This is where I cannot agree. I think this is due to the details vs. wholes issue.

When the rest of the instructions vanish it's because you view all the instructions as seperate. You received the instructions in "details". I'd guess it's due to the lack of connecting the instructions with yourself that they vanish. The only thing you need to remember from the instructions is what you need to do, not the exact list given to you. Like, if you imagine yourself doing the Things instructed, it will be a lot easier to remember, than if you need to remember a whole list in the abstract mind without relating it to reality and yourself.

I face the same issue, but I'm convinced it is due to viewing the instructions too much in details that it happens. We "forget" to relate the things instructed enough to ourselves.

NT's don't remember instructions word by word,,,they see the larger purpose of the instructions, and then they can figure it out because they realise the purpose of the instructions.

If they were instructed on how to open a bar friday night, they would not think of a list:

(1) Put keys in pocket.
(2) Put shoes on.
(3) Go to the bar.
(4) Open door to the bar.
(5) etc. etc.

(This is exaggerated, but this is in some sense how the asperger mind attempts to remember it)

Instead they think of the larger concept of a bar. What is needed? Well people are there to have fun, so we need something to drink, disco lights etc. etc....they think in what people need. We need to get into the bar which is locked, so we'll need a key, etc. etc. No lists.

The world becomes extremely confusing when viewing it too much in details instead of whole concepts.

I think of the concepts from before as all going into two categories:

(1) details, black/White thinking, objectivity

vs.

(2) whole concepts, gray thinking, subjectivity,

Yep, I get brain freezes sometimes with verbal instructions. Even more when I am interviewing someone and have to understand and analyze what that are saying, and what they are *not* saying, formulate my next question, move the discussion forward to ensure all topics are covered within the allowed meeting time, and all the while make sure to capture accurate notes. Frankly, this is so often overwhelming that I need to find a new job.

But, being where I am, I do the best I can to remember to write down verbal instructions and notes, even if it it just a scribble. More recently, if I am in an informal meeting with my immediate workgroup and people are in a generally good mood, I have sometimes said something jovial like: "Whoa wait a minute and let me catch up... I'm having an aspie moment here!" I don't make a big deal of my diagnosis, and few know of its reality. So far it seems mentioning it disarmingly in this way gets the point across while allowing others to share in my amusement at my need to catch up with the discussion. Fortunately, I am sufficiently good at parts of my job that they are usually willing to accommodate my "eccentricities".

I'm the opposite. Too many written instructions bamboozle me. I need to be walked through something. So, if I'm learning how to use something, I need to be shown or have someone on the end of a phone telling me what to do. I also don't write down instructions.
Written down instructions can overload my brain.

OP, sounds like your brain is receiving information much faster than it can process it and bottlenecking and freezing because it's just clogged. Pretty much a hallmark trait of Autism. And as someone else mentioned, if your working memory is challenged, that certainly does not help either. It might help to break things down into tiny chunks and work at them one little piece at a time. That helps me and really helped when I was in school.