Can you imagine things very clearly in your head

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I know that once I see something (like a person) I wont forget and then I can imagine them in any circumstance possible. Same with furniture I can just see it in my head. Does anyone know why I can do it? Can anyone else do it?

Have you ever heard of Temple Grandin? She is an animal scientist, who happens to have autism, and who designed 1/3 of the country's livestock handling systems. She calls this ability "thinking in pictures." People with autism and Asperger's are visual thinkers. I happen to be a visual thinker myself. I have to see things, in order to remember them. For example, if I need the directions to someplace, route numbers don't mean much to me. But landmarks do. If I have an appointment and I don't know where it is, I ask the person I'm making the appointment with, "What are you located near?" If they say, "We're near Dunkin' Donuts on North Main Street," then I know what they're talking about. If they say, "We're off of Route 24," I have no idea what they're talking about. I also use Google Maps to help me find places. Sometimes, hearing it just isn't enough.

When I'm visualizing something in my head it's as if I'm looking at a model of it. I can also do imaginary animation to see how different parts interact. I can add parts to the image one by one and so on.

This video is not far off from what I can see in my head, including animation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw9ffyssPV8[/youtube]

I am not good at visually recollecting things. I can imagine and think up vividly though. I think it is because of my inattentiveness that I am not good at visually recollecting things. I'm worse than average. Also being bipolar must affect it a bit. What I am good at is recalling a situation and remembering smells(before developing sinus problems) and how I was feeling during that situation.

Last edited by lostmyself on 30 Mar 2012, 1:48 am, edited 1 time in total.

I see in pictures but I can also create realistic 3d parts in my mind. Helps in my job, I model parts on the computer and program CNC machines to cut them out. I feel very lucky to have gotten a job that works so well with my way of thinking.

I can't see anything properly. I can think of parts of, for example, a castle I visited ten years ago, but I can't properly imagine any details or a larger scheme.

Thats cool, I cant hold together that much information at once but can see small details one after another. Most of my visuals are abstract and relate to concepts.

I can imagine 3d things in my head, and rotate them and stuff, but I can't keep track of that much detail at once... It's like my imagination is low-resolution or low-memory or whatever it would be called. And even though I'm very visual, I'm lousy with colors, I don't really think in color at all!

I can do it.

Very similar to what I was trying to think of to say! Unless someone made a comment I would not remember what color shirt I am wearing, or other people. I would say I usually think in 2d. I used to be really good at math in my head (i would have to practice to get good again) because I was able to visualize and make the problem simpler. I also think in words.

I don't know if this is common or not but I can sometimes take a "snapshot" of an image but I would only be able to remember a specific part, or what seems to be important. For example I glanced at my grandma's ipad and saw she was playing words with friends, as soon as I realized it was the game with me I looked away. I apologized for it, and she said it didn't matter. So I proceeded to tell her all her letters even though I glanced at it for less than half a second.

I can remember objects and their positions really well but I have a hard time recognizing people unless I see them all the time. My imagination is also not good at creating images so I basically have to mentally build images out of stock footage. I can do it, but that's not primarily how I think. This also means that when I read a book, I have no visual concept of the scenery or the characters. On the upside, the movie won't disappoint me. At least visually.

I can remember everything except for faces. Face blindness, ha.
I've got a pretty visual memory.

Same as cogs here: I can see to an extent, but eventually something has to go on paper or be in my hand to see it properly. I cannot visualize circuits very well at all without something on paper, but I can see some mechanical stuff like steam engines for instance.

Yes, I do. Sometimes it hinders my ability to cohere my thoughts though. For example, when I learn something -- say a biological process -- I read until I can visualize what happened. Then I forget what each part is called, but if I think about a topic I can see the functions and what is happening. This is similar to a movie, but less vivid. Often I talk by moving my hands, because I can visualize what I'm talking about, and it helps me cohere my thoughts into words. People tend to get confused by this, of course, because they don't have the same visualization as I do, if any at all.

I am also a spatial thinker. I remember everything and can visualize things in my mind with great detail and depth. This applies to small things(such as how quantum physics relates to cellular biology. (All my bio professors hate me because I ask questions they can't answer.)), normal human scale things, and infinity large/nearly infinite things(like the "multiverse" concept or how matter behaves under immense gravitational force.)

I can also see all of something at once when I visualize it. Not seeing in 2 dimensions, but with 3, seeing all of an object inside and out, all at once. For example, say I'm picturing a hand, in addition to the skin and dermal tissues, I see the bones(and whats inside them as well), connective tissues, nerves, lymph capillaries, blood vessels, ecct.. I can also make things that I visualize move, altho in this case, my knowledge of human appendages is not complete enough to do so accurately lol. This applies to everything that I have knowledge of the inside of in some way: cars, buildings, organisms, ect..

I can also see the individual cells and their organelles, and the organelles internal structures. I have a weird sort of visual "scientific notation" for lots of little things, its hard to explain.

Books play out like a movie in my head. Doesn't work for audiobooks lol.

Don't get me started about the fundamentals of computation and the relationship between software and hardware.

I kick ass at problems in physics, chem, and other sciences. I can script like a boss,(python, perl, ruby.) I suck horribly at most math class math, I have no problem learning it, it just doesn't stick for very long.

With things I have seen or created myself, yes.
With scenarios provided by other human beings, no.