Visual Thinking & Telling Time

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I've heard of some autistic people having trouble telling time before. I got an issue that I always thought was unique.

I'm great at telling time... if it's with an analog clock. I can just take a split-second glance at it and know, "Okay, ten minutes and then it's lunch time!" or, "Wow, that was only twenty-five minutes ago?"

However, I have trouble reading digital clocks. Everyone else tells me digital is "soooo much easier!", but I sometimes struggle with it. The thing is, I can see a digital clock, but in order for me to understand it, I first have to "translate" the written numbers into the angles of the hands on a clock face. I can even read the clock out loud, "It's 12:22", but if I don't visualize the small hand being slightly after 12 and the long hand being just below 4, the words mean almost nothing to me. I even change the clocks on my phone and my computer to analog so that I can understand them with a glance.

Everyone tells me it's weird. I've even heard people say that they hate analog clocks. I can understand digital being easier for others: it is literally writing the numbers that people hear. But it's just not easier for me. I only recently realized that I'm an Aspie, and now it makes me wonder: with our preference for visual-thinking, is this normal for us? Does anyone else here think of clock times in angles rather than numbers?

Also, does anyone have any similar situations that they think of visually rather than abstractly? It's possible I do this with other things but I don't even realize it's different yet.

Weird I never heard of anyone that had trouble with digital clocks. I used to struggle with analog clocks but now am like you with them [only it takes me like 2 seconds to read it].

I'm also a visual thinker and think that digital is easier and faster to read. Sadly pretty soon analog clocks will be a rare thing to see so maybe you can find a way to look at digital clocks faster.

I actually prefer digital clocks over analog clocks. This is because analog clocks confuse me. Hours are more important than minutes, and you'd want to read it before the minutes, then why is the hand for the hour shorter than the hand for minutes That confuses me every time, no matter how many times a day I would read a clock. Usually after 5-10 seconds I finally figured out the time.

That being said, I do think very visually. It's just that analog clocks make no sense

I remember having a hard time with being able to tell what time it was when I was a kid, and I did not want to learn either because I didn't think it existed......which I was kind of right about it is just a human construct but outside of our societies it's pretty meaningless. But yeah I learned eventually though it still kind of takes me a minute unless its a digital clock.

for me, "time" is a very interesting subject and "the time" consists of exactly 4 numbers.

I didn't learn how to tell time until I was nine. I struggled learning how when I was eight. I remember the fake clock the schools have and I remember the teacher spinning it and I couldn't grasp it. I just watched the hands move when she spin it. Then when mom made me learn when I was nine, I learned it quick but I used to think it be eight forty five than seven forty five because the small hand was on the eight. That confused me for a while. I don't think I ever had a problem with digital clocks.

I'm with you on this one.. It's much easier for me to remember the time from a quick glance, whereas digital clocks seem to require longer and more frequent checks. I suppose it's easier to glance at an analog clock knowing you have to leave at 8:30, thank keep checking and reading a digital clock..

Jasom

Did you learn how to read analog before digital?

My main problem with analog clocks is that the hand doesn't line exactly with the hour, it moves over time. I think the core of both our problems lies here, it's just my brain is more wired to place valued numerals, and yours to a more accurate look at time.

Yeah.

I remember the day my mother taught me how to tell time in '70. Back then only analog clocks.

It's funny now because I'll convert the digital time to analog time. Say it's 9:41, it means it's 19 minutes till 10 to me.

I find reading analog clocks more difficult than digitals. In a similar manner, I have to translate analog readings to digital before I can get the time. I always see numbers when I think of a certain time, although my primary thinking style is visual-symbolic-conceptual.

digital clocks were not that common in the early 80s.. My first was a Micky mouse Wind up one... I tend to use digital clocks most of the time these days though, it's not through any preference, but I tend to use an iThing or computer rather than a clock or watch. I don't really like having my wrists touched and the metal used in watch straps and backs tends to bring me up in a disgusting rash.

I just find it slightly easier to remember what an analog clock says, this might be a visual memory thing as its easier to remember an angle than some digits, the other optimisation is that the hour hand isn't that important. I can mentally keep track of what hour it is, if I check the time every so often.

I've normally got a fairly good idea of the current time, I do check the time almost obsessively. I tend to know exactly how long it takes to do various things and drive to places. I'm pretty good at getting somewhere exactly on time, it's a bit of a game really, but beats being 2 hours lte for everything like I use to.

Jason

I was thinking a similar thing. It would make sense that you would eventually recognize the "look" of the clock and be able to tell what time it is, like someone else would recognize a face (immediate and not consciously done). Does that sound plausible?

It sounds quite reasonable. I said the hour hand isn't that important, the numerals aren't nessassary at all.. That must give some clue as to how immediate and intuitive an analog clock can become.

Jason

Interesting...
Time read from a digital display is just "time now". It's factual, naked and isolated; if I want to know how long I have to wait until something happens I have to calculate it out to get a "feel" for how long that is. Essentially, I convert it to a visual metaphor before the time is able to take on any more significance than just "now".

Time read from an analog display has an immediate and visual position relative to the past and the future: everything I need to see about "now" and where it "sits" relative to the day is on display.
I know without thinking the feel of how long ago "X" happened that day, and how long it is until "Y" happens: it's all read in parallel.

Also; "read"?
I'm not conscious of actually reading anything from an analog clock: the time is immediately apparent and requires no more thought than, for example, knowing I'm looking at something coloured red. It just "is".

I learned to tell time with analogue clocks then later digital.

When somene asks "What time are we leaving?" I look at the analogue clock on the wall and I struggle not to say "4", because that is what I'm looking at as the desired time. Eventually I put it into words "At twenty past". I don't quickly think of "twenty" when I'm looking at a 4.
I think I see an analogue clock as a pattern of angles and understand it perfectly until asked to put it into words, then it's difficult to translate.

In this case a digital clock is easier because I look at it, it says 08.14 and my reply is an effortless "We'll leave at eight twenty"

BUT if asked "How long until we leave?" I can easily answer "in five minutes" from an analogue clock, my brain copes better with that question because I can see the time now, and know its a single 30' increment until the "plan to go time", so thats five minutes no matter where on the clock it is. In this case the digital clock would be slower to answer from because I need to subtract instead of just seeing the angle.

That is one of many examples of two questions my husband thinks are the same.

When digital clocks first came out I could not use them to tell what time of day it was... 12:22 just ment 12:22 and not a little after noon.
Some decades later I have to do the same and make a mentel clock with its hands pointing
Military time also took a while to get...

I refues to every where a digital watch... OT, it took my a long time to be able to wear a wrist watch for more than a few minutes...