I have a mixture of both. It's not necessarily a visual stream all the time.
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Is it possible to teach yourself to think visually?
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I have a mixture of both. It's not necessarily a visual stream all the time.
I'll quote myself from another topic:
It's good to know that scientists have this covered (I mean in the sense of knowing about it and researching it etc.). I never thought in pictures much. The most I would think in pictures would have been like "one moment" when thinking about past experiences (like not the whole story like a video but only some hashes of it).
My problem is (was) that my mind couldn't "hold" pictorial information. I think the most prominent example is thinking about directions. I always wondered how people do it: Driving and knowing which direction they are heading - after thinking about one place I simply couldn't imagine the next place. My mind just wasn't made up for thinking in pictures. It makes sense: If you don't do it, you can't do it.
Also, after thinking about that more, I realized why I was so bad at drawing: I simply didn't imagine the picture much before painting. I didn't really use or have a visual mind. Like, I was simply thinking: ok, I make these lines and then I'll see how it looks (instead of figuring it out in my head).
It hasn't hindered me in other aspects, anyway. I'd argue that for analytical thinking not thinking in pictures is even better.
However, there's one thing that has changed my mind somehow: Playing Go (iGo, Baduk or however you'd like to call it). I noticed that you literally HAVE to think in pictures to get even a very simple grasp of playing on a level that makes fun. I couldn't. But I played on and on and on (yes, it was fun for me anyway). And then one day I noticed that I was able to picture at least a little bit of playing the future stones in my head. I could do it (at least like 3-4 stones or something) and I think that changed my whole mind regarding pictorial thinking. Before that, my thinking was always "you do that and then you do that and then you do that." Like, always having this kind of narrator in my head. I still have that BUT it's not my only solution anymore. E.g. I am now able to go through streets in my mind, like going the whole way from your home to the supermarket (or anything that is at least a few streets away) in my mind.
As for why my mind was made up without pictorial thinking, I'd like to blame my tinnitus that was (and still is) always annoying me when I was not thinking in words or being in the moment. So, it was always too annoying whenever I didn't form words, like when thinking in pictures or when just trying to rest. So, always thinking in words was my coping mechanism. It still is in a way.... but at least my tinnitus doesn't interrupt my pictorial thinking so much as before. (Before it was like: picture - 1ms - tinnitus - picture gone.)
Hope at least someone could gain anything from my personal analysis. The mind is an interesting subject and something that can change due to training as I've noticed with myself.
Depends on how you define clear but anything I can imagine I can see a picture of in my head.
I mean can you imagine colors?
jchap
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Play chess. You are forced to move pieces around in your head. It helps with visualization.
Once you get really good you don't need the board at all. Then there is this on the far end of the spectrum: https://youtu.be/xmXwdoRG43U?t=6m35s
Once you get really good you don't need the board at all. Then there is this on the far end of the spectrum: https://youtu.be/xmXwdoRG43U?t=6m35s
Chezzymann
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I can do vague concepts in my head but I can't do anything detailed. It's like that holophone episode of futurama.
Doctor Doom
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It's one thing to visualize, it's another to visualize with the same vividness as reality. I can visualize easily, but it's not super vivid, alternate reality I'm in, that is some kind of self induced and controlled VR kind of thing.
Those who claim strong visualization, do you claim you can't distinguish your visualizations from reality in terms of vividness? If that is the case, that could lead to solipsism.
Those who claim strong visualization, do you claim you can't distinguish your visualizations from reality in terms of vividness? If that is the case, that could lead to solipsism.
I used to play a lot of chess and i still didn't visualize anything. They way i would look into future moves for example was "if i move this and he moves that [and so on] his pawn is in a position in which i can take it safely with my knight".
For the record i can't visualize anything i haven't seen and even then i can only grasp it for a very short time. Someone mentioned jacking off using your imagination and while i do that, i don't do in the sense of seeing something hot, i just elaborate a hot situation in my head i guess.
goldenpp72
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I can yes, it's not like seeing it for real but I thought everyone could..
Wow that must be amazing.
Just ly dow and relax your muscles. Your mind will start to visualize eventually.
Souldriver
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This is tripping me out. Some people are unable to visualize what they're thinking about? So weird and fascinating to me. Things like this must have such a profound effect on the way people think and act.
If you can't imagine the color green for example, do you then see the word green in front of your eyes? Or is that visual as well, and you don't see anything at all? As in: the visual aspect of memory/thought is completely absent?
If you can't imagine the color green for example, do you then see the word green in front of your eyes? Or is that visual as well, and you don't see anything at all? As in: the visual aspect of memory/thought is completely absent?
If I try to imagine a colour I imagine the word and the feelings the colour gives me. There's no image at all.
So you're thinking off the semantic associations of the word without the visuals?
I think that's pretty cool. I can't imagine what programming must be like if you naturally envision the essence of a function rather than the visual form.
I think that's pretty cool. I can't imagine what programming must be like if you naturally envision the essence of a function rather than the visual form.
Could it be that your just not that conscious of what is happening in your mind. That you maybe do see things in your mind sometimes but your not aware that's what it is and that's what you do.
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