Visual 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.

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.

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:

Thinking with the meaning of language in terms of multidimesional scenarios of the ideas and concepts, as opposed to the sound of language.
Thinking at a subliminal rate of 32 concepts per second, as opposed to the 6-7 words per second experienced by typical verbal-sequential thinkers, thus appearing to intuitively come to conclusions that are very hard to reach by using typical linear reasoning.
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.
Difficulty gauging time as it passes.

Characteristics of visual thinking

What a picture thinker is or does is still debated, but some research has been done in the Netherlands where picture thinking is called 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 name indicates, 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.

The book Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner by Linda Kreger Silveman says that one-third of the population thinks in images, and suggests to develop appropriate learning methods, in order to fulfill the talents of visual-spatial learners.

Some statistics

According to L.K.Silverman's research for over two decades, there is a high confidence (over 80%) that:

At least one-third are strongly visual-spatial.
One-fifth are strongly auditory-sequential.
The remainder are a balance of both learning styles.

Of that remainder (who are not strongly visual-spatial nor strongly auditory-sequential):

Another 30% show a slight preference for visual-spatial learning style.
Another 15% show a slight preference for auditory-sequential learning style.

This means that more than 60% of the students in a regular classroom learn best with visual-spatial presentations and the rest learn best with auditory-sequential methods.

Among gifted students, the proportion of visual-spatial learners may be much higher. In one small sample, more than three-fourths of the gifted students preferred visual-spatial methods.

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.

List of people with visual processing

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

Ramanujan was a gifted mathematician, who defined more than 3000 formulas without proving them in a step-by-step fashion. When asked about his working method he said: "The goddess Namagiri whispering me the answers".
Nikola Tesla was a Croatia born Serbian inventor and physicist: discussed in depth picture thinking in his seminal document The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, his abilities including operating fully functional models in his mind, may possibly have had Asperger's syndrome;
Temple Grandin is an associate professor at Colorado State University, professional designer of humane livestock facilities, and arguably the most accomplished and well-known adult with 'high functioning' autism.

Furthermore verbal thought is not of primordial help for people who are specialised in professions requiring instant visualisation such as air traffic controllers or detectives, or other professions requiring quick links and spatial awareness such as architects, engineers, and many artistical branches using pictures of the eyes and the ears.

References

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

External links

"The Visual-Spatial Learner" An Introduction
visualspatial.org
Thinking with Pictures is highly visual model mapping software for children running on MS Windows.
Maria J. Krabbe Stichting (in Dutch)
Autism and Visual Thought
Neuron Learning Fast ForWord Reading Programmes
The Gift of Dyslexia
"The problem of Increasing human energy" - Tesla's essay on the working of his mind, and other subjects.
I Think in Pictures, You Teach in Words: The Gifted Visual Spatial Learner by Lesley Sword

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