how can i find out if im visual or verbal thinker ?.

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im so confused there are times when i think in words and others are in pictures, is it possible to be both ?.

are there any tests online that i can take ? to bring some more clarification to this.

You can be any kind of variation on visual/verbal. It's not an either/or thing. Even being visual means different things for different people. Somebody can probably provide a link for a test, but the best way to learn about your specific traits is self-observation. Nobody knows you better than you do, and no test is going to provide all the answers.

I think mostly in pictures but occasionally in words if I am thinking of someone speaking or if I'm rehearsing something in my head before I say it. I don't have perfectly clear images in my head (like Temple Grandin for example) they are most abstract and fuzzy.

I agree with the person who said it's not an either/or thing. Most people think in words AND pictures. However, some autistic people are non-verbal, but obviously this isn't you since you can type a message on this forum. There are more people who lack mental pictures than people who lack verbal thinking, and lacking mental pictures isn't as severe a problem.

So I agree it's a matter of degree, rather than either/or.

If I understand correctly, being nonverbal doesn't mean that you can't type a message on this forum. I believe there are plenty of people here who are, to a large extent "nonverbal", and yet write quite eloquently on this board. KingdomOfRats and Age1600 are two who come to mind. I think they both consider themselves "nonverbal" at least part of the time, but I may be mistaken.

As far as verbal vs visual thinking, I do both. I assume that NTs do both, as well, actually, and that's what confuses me. Certainly most NTs don't only think in words; that would make life pretty difficulty for them, I would imagine. A lot of my thinking doesn't seem to be in words OR pictures. It just is. As soon as I try to analyze whether I'm thinking in words or pictures, they both disappear, so I'm never sure.

So would a verbal thinker be one that thinks dominantly through auditory internal dialogue, like talking to oneself, while visual thinkers think as if there's an internal projector playing out their thoughts? Its hard to imagine thinking with little dialogue.

Edit: Nevermind, I looked it up. Man, I was way off.

Wait a minute. You mean that's not what it is?

Everything I've read about it makes me think that your description fits just right.

Now I'm even more confused.

LOL oh man... don't tell me there's two definitions out there!

Here's what I found:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/vi ... l-thinking

Well, many non-verbal autistics can speak some words, but I certainly wouldn't describe them as eloquent. If I am correct, I believe that non-verbal autistics can speak, but whether or not they are considered verbal or non-verbal depends on if they use speech for communication.

He certainly writes well enough to be considered verbal, as all Aspies should. Though that doesn't mean he isn't more of a visual thinker than a verbal thinker, two separate issues. No non-verbal autistic can talk successfully on a message board, maybe post some non-sense but that's it, this is common sense.

I can consider myself "East Asian" but that doesn't make it so under the current definition. It's illogical to assume that because some people consider themselves something, that it changes the definition of what that something is. If I consider myself "East Asian" this doesn't mean the category should be broadened to include people descended from Northern Europe.

Last edited by Master_Shake on 20 May 2009, 12:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't really understand what thinking in pictures means. I've always thought in words. How do you look at an object and see a picture-- and of what, the object? I don't get it.

If I look at an object then I don't see it in my head because it's already there. I don't automatically name the object in my head though. If I thought back to an object or anything really it will be an image with no words. Unless it was a conversation where it will be a mixture of the two.

Temple Grandin thinks in pictures and she describes it very well in this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjAmzeW0fPs[/youtube]

She comes on at about 4:08 I think.

Great video. It is interesting to note that Ms. Grandin talks about how, although she is a visual thinker, she is not able to generalize visual concepts. She had to consciously figure out what makes a dog is different from a cat. She has talked about this before, some autistic people don't see a prototypical image in their head. So an autistic person, when they are asked to think of a dog, see all the different kinds of dogs they have seen, rather than visualizing a prototypical dog.

I am a verbal thinker, but it is not like I have a verbal concept in my head that a dog "has a different kind of nose." I am just able to instinctively know whether an animal is a dog or cat without actually being able to verbally describe the difference.

I am a computer science researcher at Georgia Tech, and the father of two boys on the spectrum, one of whom is nonverbal, by which I mean he does not speak. I have some colleagues who have been looking at this issue of characterizing visual and symbolic (what you are calling verbal) thinkers. I would recommend you contact them for more information. The faculty member is Prof. Ashok Goel ([email protected]) working with Ms. Maithilee Kunda ([email protected]). Just tell them Gregory Abowd referred you to them. Their work is inspired by Temple Grandin as well as the work by Michelle Dawson and others in Montreal on different forms of intelligence tests. I concur with the general sentiment in this thread that it is a continuum.

I also think a visual thinker is not the same as someone who responds to visual cues in the environment, but I am not referencing any science when I state that, just an opinion.

I am predominately a visual thinker.
I see thinking in two ways: thinking in pictures and thinking in symbols. I refer symbols to math and music which I am horrible at. Although if symbol thinking is verbal that makes a whole lot of sense too.
I always though you were either one or the other but I guess you can be both.
I have a pretty good memory of the places I've been, but I couldn't tell you what the places were called or how I got there without talking about the landmarks that I saw.
I also have a problem with description in storytelling and speech which verbal thinkers can do quite well.
I very skilled in drawing though and most of the Arts.
I wonder if visual thinking affects my direction skills? I can't follow many routes on a map at once and hate giving directions.
I like being this way though. My mind is a movie screen.

I have a hunch that I'm a verbal thinker. I listen to music, four times the amount of time that I watch TV. I also talk to myself, instead of drawing or sketching my problems, on paper.

Visio, Verbio, Audio topic

I have never been audio, as I have CAPD, but given time I use mostly visio with a dash of verbio, according to the chart in the article.

Thanks for the link, typ3.