Mar. 6th, 2011 12:04 pm
Pure Imagination
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textualdevianceHad quite a surprise earlier with a post talking about someone who apparently lacks the ability to visually imagine things. I'd never heard of such a thing before, and had in fact always assumed that everyone had the ability to "make movies" inside their heads like I do (waking or sleeping.) But I guess that's not the case.
This sort of matches up with a convo D and I had the other day about different learning and communication styles, and how I greatly prefer learning or having important conversations via text. Partly this is an ADD thing. When I'm interacting with someone in person or even just on the phone, there are a lot of other stimuli around dividing my attention, and I end up getting only about every third word. Lectures are always useless for me. But hand me a book or throw in a Powerpoint, and I'll have it memorized well enough to ace a test on it weeks later (I can actually still recall textbook pages I read in 5th grade. How's that for weird?)
I also have good taste and touch memory, too. I could describe for you exactly how my mother's potato salad tastes, or the precise feeling of the quilt I used to sleep under when I was 6.
What makes this even more odd is that I do have incredibly detailed audio memory but in only one circumstance: When there's music involved. I pick up new songs almost instantly, and can recite music-heavy movie or TV scenes almost verbatim after only a viewing or two. I can still sing about half of a song I only heard once in a concert 18 years ago. I think the reason this works when lectures or regular conversations don't is because the music keeps my attention from wavering. (It's the same reason why I get a lot of boring stuff at work done when I have Pandora playing.) I guess something about the part of my brain that processes rhythm and melody has to be active in order for me to retain the rest of what I'm hearing.
Anyway, I think all this is why I'm so comfortable writing and interacting online. My imagination is so vivid and detailed that I don't feel like I'm losing out if I don't have a visual reference. Other people who may not have such a detailed mind's eye, so to speak, may need to have all the extra stuff that comes with in-person communication or information transfer. I've known for a while that people have different learning styles and different methods to commit things to memory, but I guess I'd always assumed that visualization was part of that for everyone. Knowing that it's not--and that there are probably degrees of it, in any case--really changes how I think about interacting with other people.
I don't know how much better my mental movie ability is than most other people--maybe it's my superpower?--but it does explain why I often have disconnect with folks who might not "see" things the way I do.
This sort of matches up with a convo D and I had the other day about different learning and communication styles, and how I greatly prefer learning or having important conversations via text. Partly this is an ADD thing. When I'm interacting with someone in person or even just on the phone, there are a lot of other stimuli around dividing my attention, and I end up getting only about every third word. Lectures are always useless for me. But hand me a book or throw in a Powerpoint, and I'll have it memorized well enough to ace a test on it weeks later (I can actually still recall textbook pages I read in 5th grade. How's that for weird?)
I also have good taste and touch memory, too. I could describe for you exactly how my mother's potato salad tastes, or the precise feeling of the quilt I used to sleep under when I was 6.
What makes this even more odd is that I do have incredibly detailed audio memory but in only one circumstance: When there's music involved. I pick up new songs almost instantly, and can recite music-heavy movie or TV scenes almost verbatim after only a viewing or two. I can still sing about half of a song I only heard once in a concert 18 years ago. I think the reason this works when lectures or regular conversations don't is because the music keeps my attention from wavering. (It's the same reason why I get a lot of boring stuff at work done when I have Pandora playing.) I guess something about the part of my brain that processes rhythm and melody has to be active in order for me to retain the rest of what I'm hearing.
Anyway, I think all this is why I'm so comfortable writing and interacting online. My imagination is so vivid and detailed that I don't feel like I'm losing out if I don't have a visual reference. Other people who may not have such a detailed mind's eye, so to speak, may need to have all the extra stuff that comes with in-person communication or information transfer. I've known for a while that people have different learning styles and different methods to commit things to memory, but I guess I'd always assumed that visualization was part of that for everyone. Knowing that it's not--and that there are probably degrees of it, in any case--really changes how I think about interacting with other people.
I don't know how much better my mental movie ability is than most other people--maybe it's my superpower?--but it does explain why I often have disconnect with folks who might not "see" things the way I do.
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I think you're right about finding it hard to connect with people who have different abilities. Interesting, isn't it?
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On the other hand, some stuff that's really transcendant for me I gladly experience over and over again, even though I know it by heart. It becomes ritualistic, I suppose--comforting in its familiarity.
There are a few very rare things that I love so much I don't ever want to experience them again, though. I feel like it would cheapen my memory of the original experience to try to recapture it. Like I can't lose my Lost or BSG virginity over again. ;)