Visualization poll (participation is mandatory)

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Of course I was kidding about the mandatory part. But I would like as many as possible to participate.

Please

1. State your diagnosis (whether official or speculative--please indicate which)

2. Describe your visualization ability as best you can in 300 words or less

3. Describe your ability to "imagine sounds" as best you can in 300 words or less

Thanks!

1. Speculative, somewhere on the high functioning end. Ask me again in a couple of months. (gulp)

2. Not high. I don't really "see" any pictures or anything; if I concentrate I can imagine very simple shapes, like a square or a circle. I tend not to notice the visual parts of descriptions of characters in books. I dream in full sound-and-vision, though.

3. High, or at least, my recall of sounds, speech, music or whatever else I've heard is very good (with some minor limitations). I usually "hear" speech in books in my own (fairly flat and dull) voice, though; not because I can't hear imagined speech in different voices, I just tend to use my own.

1. I have been formally diagnosed as autistic.

2. In the narrowest sense of the word "visualisation" - imagining a picture - I am somewhere between very poor and hopeless. If I try to picture something, I don't see the object - I see a colourless silhouette of the object (with the shape defined precisely), and a virtual database of properties about the object. I have a severe visual agnosia, and cannot identify an object unless I have seen one exactly like it, or go in my mind through enough properties to make a positive identification. After a few decades, I can often do this quite quickly, but I still have immense difficulty when searching for an object described to me (It's in a small blue box with flowers...) that I have never seen before. Not surprisingly, I also have prosopagnosia - if I meet you today, even for a long time, and then pass you unexpectedly in the street tomorrow wearing different clothes, I will almost certainly not recognise you - not even a vague familiarity. In the broader sense of visualisation, I can spatially abstract extremely complicated systemic things - I make a living building computer models of various processes. I will remember all of the intricate details for years, and can "see" all of the interactions and moving parts.

3. I can remember sounds precisely, especially songs. If there is even a slight change in the reproduction, it is like an alarm in my head. Not surprisingly, I have perfect pitch, and a good sense of tempo (which is surprising, as I have a very poor sense of time). Unlike with visuals, I recognise sounds without thinking. Not free of auditory processing issues, multiple competing sounds (such as two people talking at the same time) are indistinguishable and merge into one unintelligible complex noise, which I can replay with precision but cannot interpret. I am extremely sensitive to some sounds - it's not nice to rustle cellophane or plastic bags near me, especially toward nighttime. As far as imagining sounds, if you describe one, I'll match it in my mind's extensive database and replay the closest match from memory. I'm not sure if that's how most people's "imagination" works, but it's all I know. While I easily forget faces, I seldom forget voices, and am often spared embarrassment when a seemingly random person (who I actually know, but can't recognise) starts to talk, allowing me to identify them before they are aware that two seconds earlier I had no clue that we had ever met before.

1. Officially diagnosed with AS, along with synesthesia, sensory integration disorder.

2. Visualizing is easy, and actually necessary for me to understand things. I prefer visual writing systems such as Japanese, math that can be seen (algebra and geometry versus analysis), and orderly arrangements of objects in my environment. However, recognizing faces is not easy for me.

3. Sounds come with associated visual and tactile sensations due to my synesthesia. I don't try to "imagine" sounds; my brain is already doing that anyway.

Mandatory visualization and auditoriziation topic

1. Official dx of Asperger's Syndrome (2000)

2. I have crisp, clear visualization ability (though not as strong as Einstein). Anything communicated to me verbally or in written form needs to be translated into visuals, including the printed word.

3. I can voluntarily imagine about 90% of sounds. There are some sounds for which I need an example. (An example is the sound of a panther screeching. I could only imagine the growl until I heard a recording.) Oddly enough, I also have CAPD.

You are welcome.

1. State your diagnosis (whether official or speculative--please indicate which)

Speculative - Mildly Autistic - High Functioning

2. Describe your visualization ability as best you can in 300 words or less

I have excellent capacity for visualization from both memory of actual things visualized throughout my lifetime and also creative visualization, visualizing things that I have not seen before and do not exist outside of my imagination. Much of my art work is based on creative visualization. I see what I paint before I put it on canvas. For example, I visualize a room; the walls, the windows, the furniture, the objects and or people in the room. I also visualize faces although I have no way of knowing whether or not I have seen certain faces in real life and retain memory of them, or if I have created them from scratch. But usually the faces I see could not have been seen before, unless they are a composite of many bits and pieces, as they appear to me in the abstract style in which I paint.

3. Describe your ability to "imagine sounds" as best you can in 300 words or less

I do imagine sounds and usually in the form of music. This phenomenon usually occurs as I am drifting off to sleep or while dreaming, or sometimes upon waking from sleep or a dream. These sounds, this music is always unique, not something I've heard before, but music which my mind alone has composed. The music always strikes me as being shockingly beautiful and I am amazed that I, my mind, has created such a beautiful sound. Sometimes a single voice (not mine) or group of voices sing along with the music, lyrics that are intricately woven into the meter and that would be extremely difficult for me to write if I were wide awake and making a fully conscious effort. As soon as I become aware that I have the music going on, I quickly try to write down the lyrics, and jot down some semblance of the notes and rhythm before it leaves my mind for good. Also, when I am conscious, any time I choose, I can hear choral music (just like turning on a switch) that is totally unique, and actually being created spontaneously at will. Sometimes there are major and minor voices which I can separate from the choral group and hone in on, also at will. It's fascinating and I feel very fortunate to have this ability. I wish I had the talent to put it down on paper as a composer does, but perhaps, if I led a different type of life with no other responsibilities, I could devote my life to doing that.

Last edited by cosmiccat on 08 Sep 2009, 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

1) Official as of July 2008

2) Visualize rather well, though repeated exposure to a person, object or place makes the ability to picture it stronger. Remember face-name combinations well if I see the individual on a regular basis; if we worked together every day - two years ago - I may not remember your name if I see you today. Not that I would have gone up and spoken to you anyway.

3) As melissa17b says:

Can spot a K-Tel reproduction of a hit record even if the only difference is the presence of a tambourine in the background (Moah cowbell!) Easily pick up voices I hear on television and learn to reproduce them almost unconsciously.

1. Speculative AS, but I'll start being evaluated officially soon

2. Good. If you ask me to visualize a scene or a character I could do so easily. If you ask me to visualize something or someone I've seen before, I could create a decent, if somewhat vague, mental image of it. When I read fiction, I see the events of the novel happening as if I were watching a movie or play. I don't have any trouble recognizing faces.

3. Very good if I've heard the sound before. I recall sounds very well, short-term. After I hear something, I can play it back in my head exactly as I heard it originally. Unfortunately I can only remember so much for so long, which is why I still struggle to remember verbal directions when there's a lot of them at once.

1. Suspected AS.

2. Excellent.

3. Excellent.

Please

1. State your diagnosis (whether official or speculative--please indicate which)

Official, High Functioning Autism.2. Describe your visualization ability as best you can in 300 words or less
Dreadful... ups and downs get mixed up, rights and lefts... that's only in two dimensional representations. In three dimensions it gets even worse, I can't even describe how confusing it gets. It feels like there's not just up down, left right, height depth to deal with, but several other directions that I can't quite wrap my head around, and that there are no names for. No wonder I get lost...I am officially diagnosed dyspraxic.
3. Describe your ability to "imagine sounds" as best you can [in 300 words or less]This is pretty outstanding. Although I don't have perfect recall for sounds, I do have perfect pitch, and am very musical. When I'm learning a language I can hear the very subtle differences in pronunciation that most people need to be trained to pick up on (eg, plosive p and b in African dialects, glottal stops, aspirated consonants, rhythm, tones, intonations, etc. Once I hear something I never forget it, good for both music and linguistics, though linguistics is the field I really excell in. Sounds have texture to me, warm, or hard, or cold... there are colours also, but I think they only make sense to me.)

1. I strongly suspect I have AS

2. My visualization is interesting. I can memorize rather complicated things and some simple things may be blury. I can compare pictures, and may even remember surprising things by searching my mind. I may, for example, be able to search a shelf, in my memory, I only saw once to find out if a store has a certain product. I am now several hundred miles from my home, but I cann walk all through it with amazing detail, almost as if I am there.

3. I can sometimes remember a note precisely. I used to be able to name a tuine with only one note. i still don't really know how. Still, SI can sometimes recognize a tune with only a couple or few notes.

My diagnosis is Asperger Syndrome(formal)

I have poor visualization skills. I do not visualize characters in books, I often struggle to recognize people (and tend to rely on things such as the outline of their hair or body), and like Melissa17b, I have a lot of trouble recognizing objects unless I have seen them before, and they are as I expect them to be (an example being that when looking for a pair of scissors, if I am looking for the pair with red handles, and there is another pair that I am looking directly at, I will fail to recognize them as what I am looking for, or if I am looking for a pen and thinking of the top part of the pen and the pen is partially covered so the top part is not visible, I will fail to recognize the part I can see as being what I am looking for). When someone else tells me I am looking right at an object I am looking for, I will often have to use my hands to recognize the object by touch.

I have better audio recall/modeling skills. For instance my step son loved me to read Harry Potter to him after we saw the movie because I could rely on audio memory to recreate intonation and speaking patterns sufficiently similar to the characters in the movie, even for utterances that do not appear in the movie. I often entertain myself by reading things in my head using voices I have heard before. Imaging things in the voice of John Cleese for instance is always entertaining no matter how boring the reading material itself may be.

I do not have perfect pitch however, or even average pitch.

1. State your diagnosis (whether official or speculative--please indicate which)

Officially diagnosed with AS in 1999
Also diagnosed learning disabled, dyslexic at the same time. I have very poor processing abilities, especially auditory.

2. Describe your visualization ability as best you can in 300 words or less

I am a very visual person. I think in pictures. If you don’t give me something visual (in writing usually) I won’t be able to follow you very easily. Everything I experience is a stream of images. I also have a photographic memory and can remember people and places with fantastic detail.

3. Describe your ability to "imagine sounds" as best you can in 300 words or less

My weakness is auditory. I can’t really imagine sounds, I can picture what makes them, but I can’t imagine sounds.

Official

I can replay a TV show-like scenario in my head at will.



Sometimes my "inner MP3 player" randomly goes off and feeds various sounds into my brain. I know it's coming from my memory, not an auditory hallucination. Other times I can recall any music at will, if my memory of it is good. Or dialogue from a TV show. Or other sounds.

Speculative only because not yet formal, and I am debating the merits of having the diagnosis in my mid forties. I am high functioning due to diligence, luck, positive reenforcement in my youth, a willingness to adapt and learn, and having never accepted my shortcomings as absolutes, and embracing my strengths to find ways around the shortcomings.

I visualize thinks like Visio gone wild. I literally see boxes and lines and shapes with words. It's like watching an annotated slide show, and I can move the shapes around and re-arrange them to gain understanding. I can detail the settings of what I read, but the people are an abstract, to the point where I can't remember the names I have read, they are not words but symbols.

I can recognize sounds well, such as picking out an identical or similar measure in different songs, or parts of a mix. However, if a phone rings on my coworker's desk, I have to look at my phone to see if it is ringing. I have to concentrate to fix an audio source spatially. I have auditory "hallucinations" that are really remembered sounds being heard softer from inside, or triggered by similar sounds. The rattle in a bathroom fan once played the whole intro to Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" while my mind was wandering as I sat upon the porcelain throne.

"Speculative"


In terms of mechanical systems or geometric type things, I can rotate, zoom, animate, imagine walk-throughs, and etc pretty easily. Built-in CAD.

People's faces, though, I can't really visualize at all. I have a sense of people, but it's not indexed by their faces.

Someone mentioned hearing music when falling asleep. I experience something similar, but with images. It's like a rapid-fire slide show of abstract designs -- each is different, but there's always a strong theme or sense of 'character'; as if they're all by the same artist (but a different one each night). And it doesn't feel like I'm generating it; it's more like watching TV -- just a passive observer. Unfortunately, I don't have the artistic ability to try to translate the images into anything real.


Replaying music mentally is pretty easy, and is sometimes even annoying because it can happen when I don't want it to. I used to be able to play back long pieces like piano conchertos in my head, and I don't know it for a fact, but it felt like every note was there. I don't have perfect pitch. Seem to often get a strong 'feel' for sounds; the 'contours' and shape so to speak.

OTOH, I have a hard time interpreting speech. I usually have to mentally repeat what people say in order to understand.


Something that just occurred to me is that perceiving things IRL actually seems harder than imagining them. I.e. when I visualize something it's 100% clear, and there's a strong feeling of 3 dimensionality. But IRL I feel like I'm never quite seeing what's in front of me clearly; i.e. the 3Dness of the world seems to fade in and out, and etc.