Picture thinking: Encyclopedia - Picture thinking

Picture thinking

Picture thinking, visual thinking or visual/spatial learning is the phenomenon of thinking through visual processing, where most people would think with linguistic or verbal processing. It is nonlinear and often has the nature of a computer simulation, in the sense that a lot of data is put through a process to yield insight into complex systems, which would be impossible through language alone.

Picture thinking - Information processing in visual thinking

Thinking visually is often associated with the right half of the brain. The visual-spatial learner model is based on the newest discoveries in brain research about the different functions of the hemispheres. The left hemisphere is sequential, analytical, and time-oriented. The right hemisphere perceives the whole, synthesizes, and apprehends movement in space.

Picture thinking could be called "non-linguistic thinking," and people who do such information processing could be called "visual thinkers". It involves thinking beyond the definitions of language and has many personal referents to meaning which cannot be translated.

Picture thinking involves different categorization than verbal or linguistic processing. Linguistic thinking involves categorization of thought in defined, linear forms. It is serial, and it concentrates on detailed parts in the stimulus. Visual thinking involves categorization which is parallel and holistic. Though linguistic thinkers often feel that visual-thinkers concentrate on detail, in fact this occurs because of the extreme memory of picture thinkers. Much of the thinking of children in the preoperational stage (2-7 years of age) is visual. It is hypothesized that autistic people get stuck at this stage of information processing.

Picture thinking - Dimensions of picture thinkers

In psychology, picture thinking is often confused with dyslexia, and it is true that people who 'think in pictures' often have difficulty with learning to read, but not all picture thinkers suffer from the normal symptoms associated with dyslexia. Some autistics think in pictures.

Symptoms that most picture thinkers do share are:

• Problems remembering abstract chains of letters, like names.
• Difficulty in explaining concepts they have invented.
• Writing in a very convoluted style.
• Natural ability to 'quick read' whole sentences instead of word for word, but when asked to read out loud what they have read they often use other words than what is actually written.
• Ability to remember exactly the location and relative position of objects they have placed somewhere.
• Ability to intuitively come to conclusions that are very hard to reach by using normal linear reasoning.

Picture thinking - Characteristics of visual thinking

What a picture thinker is or does is still debated, but some research has been done in the Netherlands where they call picture thinking beelddenken. In particular, the Maria J. Krabbe Stichting is doing research (see link below). Researchers there have developed a method of detecting picture thinking in young children by using the so called "the world game" (het wereldspel).

Picture thinkers, as the word says, think in pictures, not in the linear fashion using language that is normally associated with thinking. Of course this is a simplification as a complete picture thinker would not be able to use language.

Picture thinkers can come to conclusions in an intuitive way, without reasoning with language. Instead, they manipulate with logical/graphical symbols in a non linear fashion; they “see” the answers to problems.

Picture thinkers are often inventors, architects or electronic engineers.

The book The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis and Eldon M.Braun describes the relationship of picture thinking to dyslexia. Another book, Thinking in Pictures, by Temple Grandin, focuses on the role of picture thinking in autism.

Picture thinking - A mixed blessing

Although picture thinking offers many unique capabilities, in practice many picture thinkers have had a hard time adapting to the demands of a world with predominantly linguistic thinkers.

In the Netherlands most of the teachers are slowly becoming aware of the unique problems picture thinkers face, and are starting to recognize these children. This is important because these children need extra help with some of their lessons, and an understanding of the challenges these children face helps to give them the right kind of support.

Picture thinking - List of people with visual processing

There are many famous people who are/were probably picture thinkers, here is a short list:

• Nikola Tesla - discusses in depth picture thinking in his seminal document The Problem of Increasing Human Energy. The thoughts were more than pictures, but also moving models. He could even operate the models in his mind. This may also be related to his symptoms of Asperger's syndrome.

See also

• Eidetic memory
• Synaptic plasticity

Picture thinking - Books

• Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner by Linda Silverman, Ph.D.
• In the Mind's Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People With Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties, Computer Images and the Ironies of Creativity by Thomas G. West

Categories: Thought | Education | Special education | Nikola Tesla

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Picture thinking", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki