Jump to Introduction & Chronology
Jump back to Previous: Uncle Tungsten - XVI.
Thinking In Pictures
by Temple Grandin - Vintage Books 1995
P19 I think in pictures. Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound, which run like a VCR tape in my head. When somebody speaks to me, his words are instantly translated into pictures. Language-based thinkers often find this phenomenon difficult to understand, but in my job as an equipment designer for the livestock industry, visual thinking is a tremendous advantage.
Visual thinking has enabled me to build entire systems in my imagination... I value my ability to think visually, and I would never want to lose it.
One of the most profound mysteries of autism has been the remarkable ability of most autistic people to excel at visual spatial skills while performing so poorly at verbal skills. When I was a child and a teenager, I thought everybody thought in pictures. I had no idea that my thought processes were different...
This is another aspect of our inability to fully appreciate how different other people are, and to assume that unless there is a truly obvious difference (like people who get nauseous when they hear certain words or who can recreate in detail a complex view they only observed for a moment) everyone experiences the world the same way we do. My favorite example of this is the guy I saw trying to cross a busy street who had no conception of how the traffic lights worked.
It turns out there is also a mirror condition called aphantasia where people can't picture anything in their minds.
P20 I credit my visualization abilities with helping me understand the animals I work with. Early in my career I used a camera to help give me the animals’ perspective as they walked through a chute for their veterinary treatment. I would kneel down and take pictures through the chute from the cow’s eye level. Using the photos, I was able to figure out which things scared the cattle, such as shadows and bright spots of sunlight... They [the photos] helped me figure out why the animals refused to go in one chute but willingly walked through another.
...in my work, before I attempt any construction, I test-run the equipment in my imagination. I visualize my designs being used in every possible situation... Today, everyone is excited about the new virtual reality computer systems in which the user wears special goggles and is fully immersed in video game action. To me, these systems are like crude cartoons. My imagination works like the computer graphics programs that created the lifelike dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. When I do an equipment simulation in my imagination or work on an engineering problem, it is like seeing it on a videotape in my mind. I can view it from any angle, placing myself above or below the equipment and rotating it at the same time...
P21 I create new images all the time by taking many little parts of images I have in the video library in my imagination and piecing them together. I have video memories of every item I’ve ever worked with... To create new designs, I retrieve bits and pieces from my memory and combine them into a new whole. My design ability keeps improving as I add more visual images to my library. I add video-like images from either actual experience or translations of written information into pictures. I can visualize the operation of such things as squeeze chutes, truck loading ramps, and all different types of livestock equipment...
...
P25 Interviews with autistic adults who have good speech and are able to articulate their thought processes indicate that most of them also think in visual images...
Jump to Next: Thinking In Pictures - II.
