How do word associations work in the brains of those who think in pictures?

[Ang]

I really, really dont get it.

I have what I guess they'd call synesthesia..I dont associate words with words; words create pictures, and tastes which are sometimes irrelevant to the previous given words.

I've never seen any thing written about people who have a hard time with word association.

I've never even spoken to someone who has this problem.

What is irking me is that there was a thread on here where many with autism seemed to have an easy time with word association.

It makes me think I have further problems..this is why when I cant speak to people , they respond with "just say anything", and I literally have nothing to think about saying.

Would this indicate that the broca area is somehow connected differently.. something broken.. a one way connection perhaps.. I dont much about nuerology.

Like I've said I cant find any info on people who literally can't do word association. I'm sure someone must know something.

 

[Ylva]

Well, it's technically picture association, but in a way words are pictures, so…

I write things in my mind before I write them, usually at least; but when I talk in my mind, so I can hear it, I actually can't speak at the same time.

And to be entirely fair, I see a lot of text in my mind, too. It's way too subtle, but if I think about a word I see it written, sometimes in a changing font.

 

[Progster]

When I'm learning a new word, I see a word as a picture, a picture of the text as it is written down on the page. I see and recall numbers in a similar way, and this is often how I remember things, especially new things. But I also have other senses associated with the word with come from life experience, such as it's sound, a sense of colour (not synaesthia, an association), an emotion that I might associate with that object. I also have pictures for words which are objects - if I think of an apple, I see an apple in my mind (a golden delicious apple with a little sticker on it, and blemishes on the skin), I can also see the word in text, but it is the picture that comes first. If I think of something abstract, like love, I see the word love, but also things associated with love, such as a heart (a symbolic one, not a real one). There used to be a video by Daniel Tammet, if only I could find it, in which he explains how he learns languages, and the way he does it is remarkably similar to how I do it.

It makes me think I have further problems..this is why when I cant speak to people , they respond with "just say anything", and I literally have nothing to think about saying.

I can't just come up with things to say on demand either - this is one reason why I feel awkward around people, especially new people, because they expect you to make conversation, and I can't - my mind is a blank.

I think that this is a seperate thing to forming pictures in your mind and associating them with words - it has to do with social imagination.

 

[tlc]

When I'm learning a new word, I see a word as a picture, a picture of the text as it is written down on the page. I see and recall numbers in a similar way, and this is often how I remember things, especially new things.

I do this too. This is how I used to win spelling bees when I was a kid, and how I get by now. Basically if I've ever seen the word used and spelled correctly in print, then I've got it.

The picture association is something I used to do. In 3rd grade during our spelling quizzes, I would write the word quickly (and correctly), then off in the page margin I'd quickly draw whatever picture came to mind for that word, before she would read the next one. No computers back then but it was very much like having an icon for the word. Anyway eventually the teacher scolded me in front of the class for doing that, in the middle of a quiz. So I never did it again and probably lost whatever word/picture association skills were cultivating.