Visual thinking

Visual thinking, also called visual/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. It is common in approximately 60%–65% of the general population.

"Real picture thinkers", those persons 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 Kreger Silverman suggests that less than 30% of the population strongly uses visual/spatial thinking, another 45% uses both visual/spatial thinking and thinking in the form of words, and 25% thinks exclusively in words. According to Kreger Silverman, of the 30% of the general population who use visual/spatial thinking, only a small percentage would use this style over and above all other forms of thinking, and can be said to be true "picture thinkers".

The Dutch nonprofit organization the "Maria J. Krabbe Stichting Beelddenken" conducts research on "beelddenken". The "Maria J. Krabbe Stichting" has developed a test, named the "Ojemann wereldspel", to identify children who rely primarily on visual-spatial thinking. In this test, children are asked to build a village with toy houses and then replicate it a few days later.

In the Netherlands, there is a strong and growing interest in the phenomenon of 'true' "picture thinking", or "beelddenken". As a result of increased media coverage during the last few years, there is an acceptance of its existence by the general public, despite criticism from Dutch psychologists and development theorists, principally N. van Woerden and R. Wiers. Several websites and foundations are dedicated to "beelddenken".

Thinking in mental images is one of a number of other recognized forms of non-verbal thought, such as kinesthetic, musical and mathematical thinking.

A common assumption is that people think in language, and that language and thought influence each other.Linguistics studies how language is used and acquired.

The strong version of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis in linguistics states that language determines thought, and that linguistic categories alone limit and determine cognitive categories. Although Whorf himself framed linguistic relativity in terms of "habits of mind" rather than determinism, the revolutionary nature of his hypothesis was met with much misinterpretation and criticism. In 1969, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay rejected the strong hypothesis using a color terminology study.

...
Wikipedia