Temple Grandin on a New Approach for Thinking About Thinking
The famed author and advocate for people with autism looks at the differences in how the human mind operates
- By Temple Grandin
- Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2012, Subscribe
When I was young, I assumed that everybody thought in photo-realistic pictures the way I do. When I think about a church steeple, I see many specific steeples in my imagination. They pop into my mind like a series of slides projected on a screen. My concept of a church steeple is based on putting many examples in a file in my brain labeled “church steeples.” It was a mind-expanding experience for me to learn that other people process information in a different way.
As a person with autism, I have the typical profile of an area of great skill and an area of difficulty. Algebra was impossible because there was nothing to visualize, but I excelled at art. Thinking in pictures has been a great asset in my business of designing livestock facilities for cattle. I can visualize projects in my mind before they are built. I observed that cattle often refused to walk over shadows, and they were spooked by sparkling reflections or shiny metal on wet floors. These things were obvious to me, but many previous designers had failed to see them.
Autism is a developmental disorder that ranges from very severe, in which a child remains nonverbal, to mild, including in highly intelligent people with specialized talents. After I wrote my book Thinking in Pictures, I talked to many people and I learned that there are three types of thinking styles that are common in people with autism. In addition to visual thinking, there is pattern thinking and word thinking. Each of the three types of thinking is a continuum. People without autism may have some specialization, but people with autism are often on the extreme end of a continuum.
A pattern-thinking child typically has great ability in math and difficulty reading. Children who think in mathematical patterns have given me fabulous, complex origami creations. When I asked an astrophysicist with a mathematical mind about church steeples, he saw abstract patterns of motion, people making steeples with their hands. There were no generalized or realistic pictures. (To learn more about the pattern-thinking mind, read Daniel Tammet’s book Born on a Blue Day.)
The word thinker may be poor at drawing but have a huge memory for facts such as sports statistics or film stars.
Different kinds of minds should work together. When they do, they complement each other’s skills. For example, I leave it to the pattern thinkers to design a nuclear power plant, but I think a photo-realistic visual thinker would have spotted a fatal flaw in the safety systems of the Japanese Fukushima nuclear reactors. The emergency generators for the cooling pumps were in low areas. When the tsunami hit, the generators were submerged and the reactors melted down. A visual thinker would have been able to imagine water cascading into the basement.
I used to think that stupidity was the cause of people not being able to see things that were obvious to me. Today I realize it was not stupidity; it is just a different way of thinking.
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Comments (10)
I just realized within the past year or two that other people's thoughts happen differently from mine. I am mostly a pattern thinker and my thoughts usually are not in words unless I am thinking about a conversation or what I am going to say. I do enjoy reading, but I have trouble putting my own thoughts into words. Now I realize that for some people it comes easier because their thoughts already are in words. I also think in images sometimes, but pattern thinking is definitely primary. I also didn't know what to call it before. I just described it as, "I usually don't think in words or pictures."
Posted by Kris on March 6,2013 | 01:42 PM
I've just finished rereading Temple Grandin's MIND piece [July-August 2012]. I decided that I have pattern thinking and word thinking and visual thinking, a bit of it all on the "continuum" she writes about. Math is the only thing that defeats me, although metaphorically it's very interesting to me. I put the magazine aside, here on the sofa, and thought I'd look up a word ("rhomboid" it so happens) for a novel I'm writing, and the dictionary -- WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL, published in 1965 -- came open on pages 1026-1027. The header at top right was a term I've never heard of before: hand-minded. Hand-minded, according to Webster's 3rd, is an adjective: "naturally disposed primarily to manual activities (those who are so exclusively hand-minded as to suggest the wisdom of drawing them off into manual or technical schools -- B.P. Fowler*)." I thought you and Ms. Grandin would be interested; I am, and also am astounded, as I always am, by the workings of coincidence. I decided to write a new paragraph using the phrase. Now, on to rhomboid. * I don't know what is the reference B. P. Fowler. Apparently not the famed H. W. Fowler who wrote about the English language.
Posted by Linda Franklin on December 7,2012 | 12:47 PM
Temple grandin has illuminated what I have felt for years with aspergers syndrome. She is VERY helpful.
Posted by Jacob Brian Dreiling on July 23,2012 | 12:28 AM
Thank you for this article I appreciate the extensive thought put in explaining to regular folks how this occurs and manifests in some people's brain and personality for unknown reasons difficult to correct in all who experience. We are not all the same and I find it difficult to understand how each person who experiences these symptoms and difficulties are not directed properly or helped to achieve goals. Many live with doubts and never get far as hard as they try. I wish there was an eaiser way to diagnoise and help further. Thanks.
Posted by Kylie on July 23,2012 | 10:23 AM
I often wonder too why it is that others do not see what I see when looking at animals who aren't human. I'm confused why they don't grasp that these beings value their lives no differently than we do... Not the dog, cat, human, cow or pig values their lives any more than the other... Yet our society gives special privileges to some based on nothing that is logical or consistent. I often think these people who discriminate on such arbitrary and pragmatic whim are blind - either deliberately or through cultural ignorance to question. Therefore to them killing "some" animals is wrong while killing others for money is acceptable. Talk about a distorted vision of reality! Nonetheless, even if most people in the world do not see the intrinsic rights of others by refusing to kill others, regardless of their species - I'm glad I have the courage to see and think in a different, and more compassionate ways. It takes courage to question what we were taught as children - Too bad we don't all possess that ability - There'd be a lot less victims if we did.
Posted by Bea Elliott on July 11,2012 | 01:36 PM
As I sat on the bus reading this article, I felt as if I had been struck by lightning. My partner of over 40 years and I are always having discussions (arguments) about the fact that I am unable to visualize his projects - he sees them clearly - and additionally he is brilliant in math and has no difficulty in reading either - an obvious pattern thinker. But I can NEVER imagine what he is describing to me, even if he draws little diagrams. Now I understand - I am a word thinker in the extreme. My mind is a repository of tons of interesting but not really useful information and details. What particularly resonated for me was when Ms. Grandin said she has labeled files in her brain - I have always "virtually" filed all of my useful (useless) information in files in my brain as well. And several years ago, I upgraded the files to a "hard disc" from the original folders I had been using in there. I'm not sure what all of this means to me other than it has given me a new perspective about how I think, how other people think, and why sometimes it is impossible for them/us to agree! Thank you Smithsonian and Ms. Grandin.
Posted by Beth Ryan on July 11,2012 | 11:45 AM
Jill, I'm just guessing, but I don't imagine that it is necessary to search for labels like autism, in order to understand your own mind. I noticed that you already seem very aware of your own mind and that you were able to identify specific circumstances in which you know a best to avoid. So, from my perspective, you seem to be very much familiar with your own mind and it is also obvious that you have learned how to overcome and work within many of the mental constraints, whatever those may be, in your life. We all have our physical, emotional, and mental strengths and weaknesses. And while the strengths and weaknesses exhibited by an individual are more polarized with those who suffer from disorders such as autism than someone who has not been diagnosed with any disorders whatsoever, the fact remains that we all face our own sets of constraints and the better we become at recognizing what those constraints and limitations are, the greater our chances at overcoming them. My point in saying all of that is simply this: You face the same challenges regardless of what you label those challenges. With that said, I wish that health and happiness follow you, no matter where your life takes you. God bless.
Posted by Dan Bergman on July 4,2012 | 12:34 AM
I have worked with autistic people and am amazed at how they solve problems. I knew a man who could tell you exactly what day Easter would be on through the year 2020 (and probably even further into the future,if pressed). When checked on the Web, he was accurate 100%! His social skills were non-existant, however. There is so much we do not understand about how the mind works. I see in pictures, read extensively, and can create almost anything if I can see it clearly. Mathematics can bring me to a screeching halt.
Posted by Jeanne Walleman, Chico, CA on July 4,2012 | 01:56 PM
my gosh! you have opened up a whole new understanding to me. I think in pictures and indeed thought everyone did, wondering why some people couldn't understand things that seemed obvious to me--and why, unlike my father, math just didn't get through to me. I've never been thought of as being autistic and indeed have excelled as a leader and administrator. However, I really don't like people as much as flora and fauna, plus writing, reading & drawing; and, if I can't be alone a lot more time than being with people, I really get out of sorts and antsy. Does thinking in pictures automatically suggest autism?
Posted by jill mack on July 1,2012 | 02:45 PM
Thank you, Smithsonian Team! We are privileged to be able to profit from your disseminating knowledge. As Temple Grandin puts it, together we achieve more. Ciriaco Leon.
Posted by Ciriaco Leon on July 1,2012 | 01:55 PM