Re^2: When I count, I think of numbers as...

[merlyn]

Regarding synesthesia...

Wow. I had no idea people did that.

Of course, I had no idea people could even see pictures in their head until I was 20 or so. My brain is all about sounds and physical positions. I remember phone numbers by saying them in my head repeatedly until the sequence of sounds is familiar, or sometimes by dialing the number three or four times until "my hand remembers".

Of course, most people expect other people to have visual recall (at a minimum) and visual imagination (hopefully). Since I have neither, I'm sometimes confused by instructions from others that are visually based, and by icons, especially when the interface is solely icon based. Ick.

[Limbic~Region]

merlyn,
Out of curiosity, are you able to solve those puzzles that give you some shape and ask to identify which other shape represents the original after some rotation or transformation. This is something men typically do better at then women. The other test that comes to mind is the one where you have some flat two dimensional shape and are asked which ones when folded along the edges will become boxes (or some other 3 dimensional shape).

It is completely possible that your brain is compensating in some other way, but it seems to me remembering someone's face would be impossible without some form of visual recall. You can pick out yourself in a group photo right?

P.S. If you are interested in synesthesia, I recommend The Man Who Tasted Shapes

[merlyn]

are you able to solve those puzzles that give you some shape and ask to identify which other shape represents the original after some rotation or transformation

No. Those are very tough. I solve them by naming the shape and then manipulating the sounds of the names of the shape. Like "a triangle pointed upward" rotated 180 degrees is "a triangle pointed downward". But if the shape is hard to name, I have a great difficulty.

The other test that comes to mind is the one where you have some flat two dimensional shape and are asked which ones when folded along the edges will become boxes (or some other 3 dimensional shape).

Again, something that is nearly impossible for me to do.

but it seems to me remembering someone's face would be impossible without some form of visual recall.

I mostly remember people by what they wear, or if they have name-able attributes (like "long blonde hair" or "glasses"). I pick myself out of a crowd because I usually wear the same things.

Learning a dance move is also difficult, because I can't go directly from seeing some move to moving that move. I have to see it, name every piece of it (inventing names as I go along if needed), then repeating the names in my head to trigger my body. And if it starts getting to be above the "7 +/- 2" threshold for total of "names of step" times "steps in the sequence", I can't keep all the different names straight, so I just go random.

For example, every beat of the macarena got translated into some phrase ("right hand on hip", "left hand on hip"), and those movements of that simple sequence are just about overload for me.

[Joost]

IIRC, recognizing people's faces is a very specialized brain activity, which seems to be only partially related to other visual skills or memory - there is even a disorder called prosopagnosia that specifically impacts the ability to recognize faces.

I have no trouble recognizing peoples faces, but I usually find it very hard to remember their name. Also I haven't been able to learn a single dance in my life so I usually just bounce around :-)

update: I usually don't think of anything at all when I count, but when I'm distracted I do use my fingers.

[tilly]

IIRC, 65% of people are primarily visual, 25% are primarily auditory, and 10% are kinesthetic. I'm in the 10%.

While I can remember images and I can remember what was said, I don't naturally think either way.

As you point out, this can make it difficult to understand directions and interfaces that are intended for visual people.