# Do you have spontaneous visual images? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 1, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371 "2015-06-01T19:14:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/1 "2015-06-01T19:14:57Z")
OK, I’m not talking about Jesus on a tortilla here folks. I am wondering if any of you have experienced anything like what I have described below. As a initial starting point, I have been a successful normal guy for all my life, with no unusual problems in my life. Stable relationships, jobs, and so forth. But… For all of my life, I’ve been prone to having mental images occur spontaneously after playing certain computer games like Bejewelled, and after particular physical activities like playing pool and bowling. Note that these are all very visually demanding - looking at patterns, judging angles, and so forth. For several hours I have spontaneous images occurring of the activity. As an example, while drifting toward sleep, I may “see” jigsaw pieces and fit them together to make a puzzle, but only if I’ve been working on puzzles in the recent past The images occur when I am not actively doing another task, and the images may not be of the particular pieces in a given game (although they are almost always just a duplicate of the actual game pieces). An extreme and rare example might be while I am sitting at a table with a number of friends, and I find myself arranging them by threes…there are three guys lined up, and there are three women, and so forth. A related occurrence was many years ago while taking Geometry. I could have a proof, and just zone out and stare at a blank paper, or close my eyes, and the problem would solve itself, with lines for the geometric figures, and angle indications and so forth appearing and disappearing as the problem advanced toward the solution. Any comments? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/2 "2015-06-01T21:24:50Z")
It sounds like you may be what they call a visual thinker > **[Visual thinking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_thinking)** > > Visual thinking, also called visual or spatial learning or picture thinking, is the phenomenon of thinking through visual processing. Visual thinking has been described as seeing words as a series of pictures.\[citation needed\] It is common in approximately 60–65% of the general population. "Real picture thinkers", those who use visual thinking almost to the exclusion of other kinds of thinking, make up a smaller percentage of the population. Research by child development theorist Linda Kreg Think... I sometimes think visually, but it never seems especially effortless for me. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/3 "2015-06-02T01:38:13Z")
If a person pays close attention to his surrounding all the time ( a la Sherlock, The Mentalist ) would that mean they are more visual than average or is visual thinking totally separate? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/4 "2015-06-02T05:08:14Z")
Since the OP is asking about personal experiences, let’s move this to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/5 "2015-06-02T05:41:41Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > If a person pays close attention to his surrounding all the time ( a la Sherlock, The Mentalist ) would that mean they are more visual than average or is visual thinking totally separate? As far as I understand it, it’s more the sort of thing that the effects team try to depict in the BBC Sherlock series - the person is thinking about a problem and various bits of information assemble themselves visually in their mind (perhaps not literal hallucinations like we see in the show, but something equivalent - and probably richer - in the mind’s eye). So, not so much about what you see around you, more about what you see inside your own head, while solving a problem. A bit like photographic memory, I guess. I knew a woman who could read books by just turning the pages (fairly quickly) and taking a good look at them, then she could later replay the turning of pages in her mind, and actually only then read the text on them. That’s what she said anyway, and she was damn smart, so I had at least some reason to believe her (this being the SDMB, I imagine someone will be along to tell me it’s all bullshit) ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/6 "2015-06-02T07:11:59Z")
Back in the day when I was playing Tetris all the time, I’d fall asleep (or be kept awake) by those damn blocks moving around and slotting together in my head. I’m an exceptionally visual person, and pretty much have my mind’s eye “movie” running nearly all the time. When I write fiction I don’t see words on a screen, I see people interacting in the places and circumstances I’ve put them in. I don’t “write” so much as simply watch what they’re doing and record what I see. I also use visual mnemonics all the time. When thinking of cycles of time (like seasonal or yearly cycles), I visualize them as a wheel or circle. When thinking of timeLINES, e.g. cause and effect or the order that events happened in, I visualize it as (of course) a line. When I watched “Primer,” I spent an inordinate amount of time drawing timelines looping back on themselves on paper in an attempt to make sense of it all (still failed… that movie is a _trip._) I do this stuff without even thinking about it. I imagine this is pretty normal for visually oriented people. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/7 "2015-06-02T11:12:28Z")
When I was a kid, I had a special talent for math. I would instantaneously visualize every problem, and almost as instantaneously, visualize the steps toward a solution. Though I can no longer do it as rapidly, I really don’t know any other way of doing math. Spelling too. Many years ago, my job consisted of kerning (adjusting the spacing between every character in a font with every other character) over 6,000 fonts in a font manufacturer’s library. Then I went on vacation to Hawaii. I actually found myself kerning palm trees. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/8 "2015-06-02T17:05:52Z")
I can remember doing this back when I learned how to type. For weeks, whenever I’d speak or listen to something, I’d see the keyboard and my fingers typing the letters of whatever I was saying or hearing. Thankfully that eventually ceased. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/9 "2015-06-02T18:10:40Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > Back in the day when I was playing Tetris all the time, I’d fall asleep (or be kept awake) by those damn blocks moving around and slotting together in my head. > > I’m an exceptionally visual person, and pretty much have my mind’s eye “movie” running nearly all the time. When I write fiction I don’t see words on a screen, I see people interacting in the places and circumstances I’ve put them in. I don’t “write” so much as simply watch what they’re doing and record what I see. > > I also use visual mnemonics all the time. When thinking of cycles of time (like seasonal or yearly cycles), I visualize them as a wheel or circle. When thinking of timeLINES, e.g. cause and effect or the order that events happened in, I visualize it as (of course) a line. When I watched “Primer,” I spent an inordinate amount of time drawing timelines looping back on themselves on paper in an attempt to make sense of it all (still failed… that movie is a _trip._) > > I do this stuff without even thinking about it. I imagine this is pretty normal for visually oriented people. I had a long post about this, but **Kaio** stated my experience perfectly. I suppose it’s why I bacame a draftsperson. I can ‘see’ how stuff should fit together or align in my head before it even makes it to the monitor. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/10 "2015-06-02T20:12:26Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#): > > I can remember doing this back when I learned how to type. For weeks, whenever I’d speak or listen to something, I’d see the keyboard and my fingers typing the letters of whatever I was saying or hearing. Thankfully that eventually ceased. Started doing that in 1985 during typing class as a high-school freshman. Still do it from time to time. Except my vantage point whizzes from key to key as the appointed finger presses each key. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-spontaneous-visual-images/721371/11 "2015-06-02T20:18:23Z")
I believe it’s what’s called [The Tetris Effect.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris_effect) From the article I linked: "The Tetris effect (also known as Tetris Syndrome) occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. It is named after the video game Tetris. “People who play Tetris for a prolonged amount of time may then find themselves thinking about ways different shapes in the real world can fit together, such as the boxes on a supermarket shelf, the buildings on a street, or hallucinating pieces being generated and falling into place on an invisible layout.”