Visual thinking

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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.[citation needed] 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.

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[edit] 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. For example, the left hemisphere is believed to be a sequential, analytical, and time-oriented information processor, while 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 recall of intellectually intact picture thinkers.

Much of the thinking of children in the preoperational stage (2-7 years of age) is visual. This fact has lead to the hypothesis that autisic people fail to develop linguistic information processing capabilites, causing their neural development to remain at a preoperational stage. Other causes hypothesized for autism spectrum disorders include underconnectivity between the right and left cerebral hemispheres, which may be caused by either physical, hormonal, or metabolic injury and damage.

[edit] 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.

Traits that most picture thinkers do share are:

  • Thinking with the meaning of language in terms of multidimensional scenarios of the ideas and concepts, as opposed to the sound of language.
  • 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.

[edit] Characteristics of visual thinking

Who and 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, engineers, scientists, mathematicians. It is now thought that the world-renowned, Croatia born Serb-American inventor Nikola Tesla, (who was also a physicist, a mechanical engineer, and an electrical engineer) was a picture thinker. In his essay, "The problem of Increasing human energy" there is a passage where he talks about how images come into his mind. Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history who helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. Other famous people who probably were picture thinkers are physicist Richard Feynman, and physicist Albert Einstein.

[edit] 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.[citation needed] In one small sample, more than three-fourths of the gifted students preferred visual-spatial methods.[citation needed]

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.

[edit] 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
  • Experiences in Visual Thinking; by Robert H. McKim

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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