Is it common for people with aspies to have difficulties visualising people? I would welcome comments and replies from everyone, but please only vote in the poll if you consider yourself an aspie.
I assume that not being able to visualise people easily also causes recognition issues which would also make describing people seen in the past very difficult. I am able to recognise people I know well quite easily when I physically see them again, but I am poor at recognising people I don't know so well and it's very difficult for me to visualise people in my mind's eye. I may be able to visualise a quick flash of someone I know very well, but I can't bring the image back on demand and it's usually impossible for me to visualise lesser known people in my mind's eye at all. I can recognise my mother very easily when I physically see her, but even with someone I have known all my life I would still struggle to describe her to others and with lesser known people I usually wouldn't be-able to describe them at all.
How visualisation issues once got me arrested:
I have witnessed crime on a few occasions throughout my life in the UK, but once when I younger the police were convinced that I knew a group of shoplifters because I was apparently refusing to describe any of them after they happened to be standing close to me in an off licence (the UK name for a liqueur store). The group seemed friendly and also spoke to me outside the shop, but shortly later a shop assistant came running out shouting. The group suddenly ran off leaving me there alone and I was told by the shop assistant to wait for the police to arrive in order to assist them as the group had apparently stolen from the shop. When the police arrived I was shocked to be asked to pay for bottles of liqueur that had apparently been stolen. I obviously refused on the grounds that I hadn't stolen anything and was then taken back to the station for questioning (apparently this was officially voluntary as I was not under arrest at this time).
At first the police seemed to believe that I didn't know the thieves and that I wasn't with them, but when they took a statement they started giving me an extremely hard time because it was literally impossible for me to picture or describe anything about the thieves (back in those days not all shops had CCTV). The police kept saying that I was obviously part of the group and they wouldn't believe me no matter what I said. Eventually they gave me an ultimatum to start cooperating or be arrested, but despite desperately trying my best under extreme pressure, I couldn't even remember if any of them were tall, thin, fat or anything else let alone facial details which they also demanded from me in a very aggressive manner. Unfortunately back then around 25+ years ago it didn't even cross my mind that this could possibly be related to aspies and instead I just got extremely upset while the police continued to lay into me without mercy.
I ended up being arrested for a crime I obviously did not commit and knew nothing about until afterwards and was bailed to return (looking back I should have got a solicitor, but at the time I didn't feel I needed one since I'd done nothing wrong and I just wanted to get out of the police station as quickly as possible). The police had put me through total hell and I was afraid to even talk about it to my parents while I was on bail thinking that they would go "mad" also believing I was involved in the theft. On returning to the police station I learned that they had caught the real culprits and that in interview they had confirmed that I had absolutely no involvement. I however received no apology from the police for the terrible way I'd been mistreated and was simply told to, "stay away from people like that in future", which was ridiculous, I just happened to be in a shop when these strangers shop lifted near me and I didn't even know they'd done it until later.
PS: I am using English UK spellings for words such as visualise (spelt visualize in the USA).
I assume that not being able to visualise people easily also causes recognition issues which would also make describing people seen in the past very difficult. I am able to recognise people I know well quite easily when I physically see them again, but I am poor at recognising people I don't know so well and it's very difficult for me to visualise people in my mind's eye. I may be able to visualise a quick flash of someone I know very well, but I can't bring the image back on demand and it's usually impossible for me to visualise lesser known people in my mind's eye at all. I can recognise my mother very easily when I physically see her, but even with someone I have known all my life I would still struggle to describe her to others and with lesser known people I usually wouldn't be-able to describe them at all.
How visualisation issues once got me arrested:
I have witnessed crime on a few occasions throughout my life in the UK, but once when I younger the police were convinced that I knew a group of shoplifters because I was apparently refusing to describe any of them after they happened to be standing close to me in an off licence (the UK name for a liqueur store). The group seemed friendly and also spoke to me outside the shop, but shortly later a shop assistant came running out shouting. The group suddenly ran off leaving me there alone and I was told by the shop assistant to wait for the police to arrive in order to assist them as the group had apparently stolen from the shop. When the police arrived I was shocked to be asked to pay for bottles of liqueur that had apparently been stolen. I obviously refused on the grounds that I hadn't stolen anything and was then taken back to the station for questioning (apparently this was officially voluntary as I was not under arrest at this time).
At first the police seemed to believe that I didn't know the thieves and that I wasn't with them, but when they took a statement they started giving me an extremely hard time because it was literally impossible for me to picture or describe anything about the thieves (back in those days not all shops had CCTV). The police kept saying that I was obviously part of the group and they wouldn't believe me no matter what I said. Eventually they gave me an ultimatum to start cooperating or be arrested, but despite desperately trying my best under extreme pressure, I couldn't even remember if any of them were tall, thin, fat or anything else let alone facial details which they also demanded from me in a very aggressive manner. Unfortunately back then around 25+ years ago it didn't even cross my mind that this could possibly be related to aspies and instead I just got extremely upset while the police continued to lay into me without mercy.
I ended up being arrested for a crime I obviously did not commit and knew nothing about until afterwards and was bailed to return (looking back I should have got a solicitor, but at the time I didn't feel I needed one since I'd done nothing wrong and I just wanted to get out of the police station as quickly as possible). The police had put me through total hell and I was afraid to even talk about it to my parents while I was on bail thinking that they would go "mad" also believing I was involved in the theft. On returning to the police station I learned that they had caught the real culprits and that in interview they had confirmed that I had absolutely no involvement. I however received no apology from the police for the terrible way I'd been mistreated and was simply told to, "stay away from people like that in future", which was ridiculous, I just happened to be in a shop when these strangers shop lifted near me and I didn't even know they'd done it until later.
PS: I am using English UK spellings for words such as visualise (spelt visualize in the USA).
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