How do you think - visual / verbal / patterns / other

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I think primarily through patterns. I notice first and foremost the connections between things. I remember things through rhythm. However I also think in words quite a bit.

I'm both a musical and visual thinker.

Visual or maybe pattern, or some combination. I'm not sure which it really starts out as, but I am definitely conscious of "translating" my thoughts into language.

Okay, here goes....
I think in pictures/movies, I think in words, I think in patterns/shapes, and I think in feelings. I also see lights in my vision, sometimes simply flashing, sometimes in the shape of a square or rectangle (only at the top or bottom center of my visual field), so does this indicate some type of thinking/ reasoning, too? I wish I knew!

Do you see them randomly? Or in response to things (e.g. sounds, touch, movement, smells, tastes, thinking about certain things)?

In response to things. But I am unsure whether they are a "lights-only" migraine headache, or maybe some form of synesthesia. My counselor at one point suggested they may be synesthesia, but I don't really know which thing might be the cause....

My first thought was that it sounded like synesthesia (that's why I asked). If it happens to be synesthesia I'd say it counts as a type of thinking.

It may be some form of Syenesthesia, but I can also get some rough headaches, so I honestly am unsure.
I hope time will tell what the cause of the lights actually is, because I'd like to be sure!
(I have had both eyes thoroughly tested, and an MRA on my entire brain system, and everything showed up normal, every time, so I just don't know! )

Visual Thinkers

This is how I think primarily, and you have done a much better job of explaining it than I feel I have ever managed to. There is quite often also a strong spacial aspect for me.

In addition, I will think verbally when I am scripting out a conversation for example. I am mostly unable to visualize though I can imagine, quite vividly, with all the rest of my senses.

1. thinking in words
2. thinking in pictures and patterns

this is as close as I can come to explaining how I think. Maybe add in that I appear to process different things at different...levels?...like more than one train of thought occurring at the same time.

All of my visual thinking is without detail. I have a sense of what is there, but I can't clearly see it.

wow. you guys nailed it. i also identify with what others have said like "deep sense of knowing" and synesthesia, which seems very familiar to me.

I'm a visual-spatial system thinker. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_thinking
With several forms of synesthesia, if it matters.

I think in all of them too.

However, to get into a feeling, or
integrate at depth a feeling I have to
draw or use music. Words for me
cannot
convey the depth and emotion that
the visual dimension offers.

The visual and musical dimension
brings things home on a
rational
logical, but also in a soul level.

I'm a very reliable visual and verbal thinker, and these thinking patterns are enhanced by my exceptional visual memory and analytical giftedness; however, I have a preferable tendency to absorb visual information with my intrinsic formulation of vivid imagery, such as integrating or attributing shapes, mentally rotating 2D illustrations, analyzing similitudes, solving visual sequences, and discerning certain aspects of shapes and patterns. Introspectively speaking, the efficacy of my mathematical thinking is well beyond to a standard degree, and this is corroborated by my ability to solve intricate mental arithmetic (e.g. multiply sixty seven thousand, eight hundred and forty eight by six thousand, four hundred and thirty six). I'm also fairly proficient at verbalizing eloquent thoughts, but only when it's pertinent to the particular environment (e.g. formal interview), as-well as my current mood levels.

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Diagnosed with "Classical" Asperger's syndrome in 1998 (Clinical psychologist).
Alexithymia Questionnaire Score: 158/185
Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R): 231/240
Aspie score: 186 out of 200
Neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 12 out of 200
AQ: 48/50 EQ: 9/80