On Visual, Pattern or Verbal Thinking (Temple Grandin)

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Hey everyone!

I'm sure you've heard about Dr. Temple Grandin and her views on autism and information processing. I read her articles today and the differences between visual, pattern and verbal thinkers are very interesting. I always saw myself as a mathematical pattern-thinker, figures it's not the case, as I've come to the conclusion that I have problems learning numbers (never could do multiplication tables) and associate numbers with images (I confuse 3 and 8 because they are both round...)

What are your opinions on this and HOW DO YOU PROCESS INFORMATION ?

I feel like I'm a very visual thinker because now, when I think about it, everything I associated with the other categories are in fact associations with visual images. I play the piano by ear, but see the keys pressed in my mind when I want to make different sounds. I like foreign languages (speak 5 languages in total), I study linguistics, but I also associate situations and images with the words and patterns, I don't look at the patterns as 'patterns'.





If you haven't read the article but are still interested:

When I wrote Thinking in Pictures I thought most people on the autism spectrum were visual thinkers like me. After talking to hundreds of families and individuals with autism or Asperger's, I have observed that there are actually different types of specialized brains. All people on the spectrum think in details, but there are three basic categories of specialized brains. Some individuals may be combinations of these categories.

1. Visual thinkers, like me, think in photographically specific images. There are degrees of specificity of visual thinking. I can test run a machine in my head with full motion. Interviews with nonautistic visual thinkers indicated that they can only visualize still images. These images may range in specificity from images of specific places to more vague conceptual images. Learning algebra was impossible and a foreign language was difficult. Highly specific visual thinkers should skip algebra and study more visual forms of math such as trigonometry or geometry. Children who are visual thinkers will often be good at drawing, other arts, and building things with building toys such as Lego's. Many children who are visual thinkers like maps, flags, and photographs. Visual thinkers are well suited to jobs in drafting, graphic design, training animals, auto mechanics, jewelry making, construction, and factory automation.

2. Music and math thinkers think in patterns. These people often excel at math, chess, and computer programming. Some of these individuals have explained to me that they see patterns and relationships between patterns and numbers instead of photographic images. As children they may play music by ear and be interested in music. Music and math minds often have careers in computer programming, chemistry, statistics, engineering, music, and physics. Written language is not required for pattern thinking. The pre-literate Incas used complex bundles of knotted cords to keep track of taxes, labor, and trading among a thousand people.

3. Verbal logic thinkers think in word details. They often love history, foreign languages, weather statistics, and stock market reports. As children they often have a vast knowledge of sports scores. They are not visual thinkers and they are often poor at drawing. Children with speech delays are more likely to become visual or music and math thinkers. Many of these individuals had no speech delays, and they became word specialists. These individuals have found successful careers in language translation, journalism, accounting, speech therapy, special education, library work, or financial analysis.

I kind of fit into all categories and none of them at the same time. I just don't find those categories useful for me. Maybe it's because I'm not really autistic. Since my verbal IQ is way higher maybe I'm just a plain old verbal thinker. I'm also into the big picture more than the details, so I guess this model doesn't apply to me.

I'm not sure what categories I fit in. I seem to have some talent and liking for maps, but I was always horrible at handwriting and drawing. I seem to be divided between the math/music thinkers and the verbal thinkers. I'm good at music, computer programming, history, and foreign languages. However, I did have a speech delay, so I'm not sure where I fit.

Im definitely and Visual/Spatial thinker. I have always known this ever since i was a child. I always struggled in school because of it and teachers would never believe me that i think in pictures, well after i got my IQ test done, it proved that my verbal IQ is s**t and my Visual IQ was in the above average level. Now in school teachers accommodate me when i need it, it only took 13 years.

I would say I'm primarily visual/auditory, but have a bit of all three.

I always was very much into visual arts from the time I was a toddler. I understand things better in pictures. I can copy anything I can see nearly perfectly, as long as I have it in front of me. But I have difficulty remembering pictures or visualizing things accurately unless I am very relaxed. In that case I can be quite good at it, but I'm almost never that relaxed.

But I've always had an ear for music.My auditory memory is superior to my visual memory by far. My visual working memory is average at best, while my auditory working memory is superior; my long-term auditory memory is also much more accurate and long-lasting than my visual long-term memory.

I did really well on the block test and auditory working memory portions of the IQ test I took. What's the significance? I don't know.

Mainly visual. Some verbal logic. Depends on the situation.

Often theories make generalizations to be able to make categories like this at all. Sometimes these theories may prove useful, other times the generalizations are just too far off. I don't know how well others fall into the categories proposed by Grandin, but for myself, the pattern thinker is spot on. I excel in math, physics and programming and used to be good at playing music when I was young, though my mind is not spontaneous enough to improvise when I play. When it comes to language, I can express myself well given sufficient time, but the fact is, I'm slow at reading, writing and to some extent, even verbalizing. I never really liked languages (other than programming languages). I just happen to need a somewhat correct language in my work as a scientist and has therefore made an effort to correct the worst errors in my language.

Some people use emotions, others use smells and taste, as part of their thinking. There are more than 3 only.

I'm pattern mixed with language.

My strongest area is in patterns.

I still think somewhat visually, though, because I will see a pen in my mind before I think of the word to go with it.
However, I have a very bad visual memory and can't even keep track of actors in movies.
I have a much better auditory memory, but I have a relatively small vocabulary, especially in comparison to others who have achieved the same level of education as me.

I'm not sure that people will easily fit into strict categories, though one may be stronger than the others. I am definitely strongest in patterns and find them *everywhere.*

I'm not primarily a visual thinker, though I sometimes think of scenes from my past in order to try to solve a problem in the present.

I'm even less of an auditory thinker.

Words (on a page) tend to evoke the visual, rather than the visual evoking the words.

I don't do as well with what comes out of people's mouths--though often it is useful

I can say, with a degree of certainty, that I am not a visual thinker. In fact, if you were to set your eyes upon a piece of 'art' I had drawn, you would likely be utterly appalled at my lack of ability to visualize even the simplest of objects.

I would surmise that I am predominantly a pattern thinker, as I tend to perform well on pattern and abstract reasoning tests. But mechanical and mathematical logic tests usually completely baffle me, which may explain why I never truly excelled at any subject at school. My reading comprehension isn't the best either, but I have been told that my spoken vocabulary is impressive for a man of my age.

Thus, I'd estimate that I am:

Visual - 5%
Pattern - 60%
Verbal - 35%

What is important is that there are different ways of thinking that seriously affect how people learn--which means that if you have trouble learning something--you may have better success if you can find someone who thinks like you do.

I'm reading Thinking in Pictures right now.

I'm a very verbally-oriented person... I scored in the 99.9th percentile for Verbal on the WAIS V, and my BA is in Linguistics. However, I consider myself to be very visual. I'm great at art and crave bright, visually engaging images. I have comic books I chose for the art and painted my room traffic stripe yellow, plum purple, and orange. My minor was in Art Studio.

I'm a Visual Learner, but also quite musical and pattern-based.

I read her book, The Autistic Brain. I thought it was an interesting theory that has merits, but like a lot of theories on the workings of the brain, a bit oversimplified. I think people have strengths in certain areas but it isn't exact, since there are different regions of the brain devoted to different kinds of processing and storage.

I would say I am primarily visual with some strength in patterns, particularly visual patterns. I'm extremely weak in spoken verbal, but actually pretty good at written verbal. I'm good with math (visual and non-visual) but only if it has real-world application. Pure math theory (like Alan Turing's number theory work) and quantum physics baffle me for some reason, so my strengths and weaknesses seem rather patchwork to me. I'm a graphic designer and web site developer by trade--I feel comfortable with code, which seems counterintuitive for someone with patchy verbal skills, but I see the code errors as a visual pattern, and I visualize what the code is supposed to do. I'm good at spotting errors in code or a book layout. I can tell if an object is off-center or crooked within a couple of degrees.

The place where I have real issues is processing spoken verbal language, either in which I have to speak or understand others. There are times when I can only picture the things I want to talk about, but not what they are called, and times when I hear only gibberish when people are speaking. My verbal processing scores were really low on my IQ test, at least on the parts that were spoken by the tester. So, I can debug a website in 15 minutes but get completely confused when someone tells me how to get to a pub three blocks away.