What do people mean: "Autistics think in pictures"

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I have to agree with everyone, we think with what we have.

Cilin Renfrew, an Anthropoligist of note has written a book on the subject of artists and scientists coming up with the same thing, through very different processes.

Like all of the languages, and there have been many, all worked, and before writing, the words were symbols. So much of English makes no sense in English, but in Greek, Latin, German, the word is a picture.

Math is pictures to me, and in machines, it is as polarity says, not the whole but the relationship of each with the next, and I can spot the flawed relationship.

Some troubleshoot from one end to the other, check power, is it plugged in. I run through the system in my head and find a function that matches the problem. Then I can start there, and it usually is there.

There are a lot of ways of seeing, and I think we use them all, but some more and some less.

I am writing a book, I started with one story, but it had conflicts, which showed me that there was more, or I had something wrong, it was both. I see in pictures, write in words, then have to draw pictures to see my words. You can write the impossible, but not draw it.

Time is running, and it is tellling a story within seasonal change, activities I thought had nothing to do with the story, till I put it on a time line, and got a whole other view. Figuring how much they ate, of what, drove the action, and they have to store for winter, which takes a place, and the edges made the story very real.

Not in pictures, words, numbers, time, can I tell the story, but with all of them and more, and being a mechanic building a machine that will run.

What is thought? I think this thread is on to something important, I think we share all of these thought forms, and some use one more than others, but everything has imits and can be defined, if you can find all the pieces, we have them.

Anyone for a Thinking Club?

I've reconsidered my original answer... upon careful reflection in my mental mirror I've decided that I was wrong earlier. I apparently have no thoughts. I expect that means I will soon be recruited by Republicans or something. Therefore these "no thoughts" of mine have no value and I should refrain from sharing, unless, of course, I am elected to office. If that happens I will be required to talk non-stop, however, luckily for me, I will be barred from saying anything intelligent.

Well, I think in pictures, videos and songs or music (thanks, Mtv), or in simple colors a la New Age. I've never ever thought in simple words like cartoons. I can be very good with words, but I've never thought in words or diagrams.

But, isn't this the way everybody thinks?

I think in sound o_O , as in I am just talking to myself internally , I have had some nice arguments there. Hard to explain/know what really goes inside my head.

Since I was as confused as heck about this topic, I took a quiz at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/thinker_quiz/ According to it I am spatial AND logical thinker.

. . .got spatial thinker; which suits me very much even though I voted 0 at the arts and crafts question due to a technicality. Again, another test implying my career choice was probably a mistake - most likely the painful truth.
The cool thing is that I couldn't truly tell what each question implied as for the final result (most likely due to ignorance. . . and drowsiness).

eh. . . now I can tell. I felt I was leaning to existential thinker. . .

My result:

So this is strange maybe... but I don't think in words OR pictures. I think in feelings. Does this make sense to anyone? I mean, I still use both words and pictures in my mind. But the blunt of my thought process is made up of some kind of feelings. Every person and object has a specific feeling to me, every major word (not things like "it" or "a") has a feeling. My mind is a giant whirlpool of all these feelings and it seems to be the most efficient way for me to think. I think very, very fast. Can never seem to spit it all out fast, though.

Anyone else know what I talking about?

I never use to write Dear on letters because I thought it had an emotional quality that would make people feel uncomfortable.

My way of thinking is very strange. I cannot think in direct pictures. It is boring to me and I would get nowhere. Everything is like one big movie, full of sound and color. I often find myself looking at the floor and having constant dialogues with myself. I shut off any images from entering my head but if I were to allow it to enter I would picture myself sitting with a blurry image before me dialoguing. I visualize myself everywhere. I can see myself going to another state, the turns I'm to take, the convenient stores I will pull over in to ask for directions. The smell, the taste, the stress, I can visualize it all. I imagine the people, the conversations, the emotions as well. I'm not sure if that is "thinking in pictures". I can hold a picture in my head but that is only to draw it, even then it is moving.