Visual Processing?

[SignOfLazarus]

I've been thinking for a while, for years actually, about how I literally see the world differently. It's one of the things that finally started to actually convince me I'm autistic.

There are specific issues that I think of in terms of visual processing that come up again and again.

The first is not being able to identify objects in regards to context/surroundings. Brains don't usually immediately recognize objects with no other information, it is often the surrounding context [even subconsciously] that assists in identification. If an individual has problems with recognizing larger context, they are going to have trouble immediately recognizing objects- which will have larger repercussions.

One time I was riding with a friend in the car and it had just rained. I saw a bunch of huge teeth in the middle of the street and kind of freaked out. I didn't yell or anything, but definitely asked my friend "WHY are there F-ing TEETH in the middle of the road?" He wasn't really sure how to respond until we put together that I was talking about cherry blossom petals. I don't see them very often, the pavement was really dark.
My brain couldn't really deduce from the surroundings what they were, mostly because my brain isn't used to the situation I think. This exchange only took a couple minutes, but one can imagine how these kind of things can affect social relationships.

Another issue is having difficulty distinguishing between many like objects or among a busy environment- a busy shelf at the grocery store for example. Eventually I just stop being able to understand what I am seeing. This more often happens when I am tired, but grocery shopping tends to make me tired ha. When I am with someone, I can ask them to just look and pick out for me what I want. When I'm not it's a much more difficult situation. Sometimes I just pretend I can't find something because "there are so many kinds!" and ask someone standing there if they see whatever kind I'm looking for and suffer the embarrassment if it's right in front of my face.

Another is if someone moves my stuff when it is normally in a certain place- one a shelf or desk, for example- I have a very hard time finding it. I think someone else said they relate to this one.

Anyway. I know that processing can often be difficult for those on the spectrum. Was wondering if anyone else can relate to having visual processing issues, if so could you share how they affect you? I'm curious what other peoples' experience might be.

 

[Harrison]

Personally, I don't have a problem with object recognition, but my son did. It became a bit of a pet project of mine back then. Here's an interesting article on the science of it.

How does the brain solve visual object recognition?

With my son we worked on improving his cognitive 'library' through repitition and introducing variations of the same object through angles and scenarios. Took a while but he developed better skills after it all.

 

[Maelstrom]

I've been thinking for a while, for years actually, about how I literally see the world differently. It's one of the things that finally started to actually convince me I'm autistic.

There are specific issues that I think of in terms of visual processing that come up again and again.

The first is not being able to identify objects in regards to context/surroundings. Brains don't usually immediately recognize objects with no other information, it is often the surrounding context [even subconsciously] that assists in identification. If an individual has problems with recognizing larger context, they are going to have trouble immediately recognizing objects- which will have larger repercussions.

One time I was riding with a friend in the car and it had just rained. I saw a bunch of huge teeth in the middle of the street and kind of freaked out. I didn't yell or anything, but definitely asked my friend "WHY are there F-ing TEETH in the middle of the road?" He wasn't really sure how to respond until we put together that I was talking about cherry blossom petals. I don't see them very often, the pavement was really dark.
My brain couldn't really deduce from the surroundings what they were, mostly because my brain isn't used to the situation I think. This exchange only took a couple minutes, but one can imagine how these kind of things can affect social relationships.

Another issue is having difficulty distinguishing between many like objects or among a busy environment- a busy shelf at the grocery store for example. Eventually I just stop being able to understand what I am seeing. This more often happens when I am tired, but grocery shopping tends to make me tired ha. When I am with someone, I can ask them to just look and pick out for me what I want. When I'm not it's a much more difficult situation. Sometimes I just pretend I can't find something because "there are so many kinds!" and ask someone standing there if they see whatever kind I'm looking for and suffer the embarrassment if it's right in front of my face.

Another is if someone moves my stuff when it is normally in a certain place- one a shelf or desk, for example- I have a very hard time finding it. I think someone else said they relate to this one.

Anyway. I know that processing can often be difficult for those on the spectrum. Was wondering if anyone else can relate to having visual processing issues, if so could you share how they affect you? I'm curious what other peoples' experience might be.

Hi Laz, interesting you write like me somewhat and yet you are almost totally opposite of me on many things. My blind spot is verbal memory very bad, but I can almost magically find stuff, notice things out of place, I spot linked things when no one else does. I likely would make a excilent animal tracker, I notice over turned pebbles, bugs, odd plants, shiny rocks, anything different, without even looking for them. But tell me your phone number and you'll get to repeat it 3 more times while I try to write it down correctly. It is why I have so much trouble on the job front, no audio memory, give me a book or a machine and I'm a great.

 

[Epicurean Pariah]

I've been thinking for a while, for years actually, about how I literally see the world differently. It's one of the things that finally started to actually convince me I'm autistic.

There are specific issues that I think of in terms of visual processing that come up again and again.

The first is not being able to identify objects in regards to context/surroundings. Brains don't usually immediately recognize objects with no other information, it is often the surrounding context [even subconsciously] that assists in identification. If an individual has problems with recognizing larger context, they are going to have trouble immediately recognizing objects- which will have larger repercussions.

One time I was riding with a friend in the car and it had just rained. I saw a bunch of huge teeth in the middle of the street and kind of freaked out. I didn't yell or anything, but definitely asked my friend "WHY are there F-ing TEETH in the middle of the road?" He wasn't really sure how to respond until we put together that I was talking about cherry blossom petals. I don't see them very often, the pavement was really dark.
My brain couldn't really deduce from the surroundings what they were, mostly because my brain isn't used to the situation I think. This exchange only took a couple minutes, but one can imagine how these kind of things can affect social relationships.

Another issue is having difficulty distinguishing between many like objects or among a busy environment- a busy shelf at the grocery store for example. Eventually I just stop being able to understand what I am seeing. This more often happens when I am tired, but grocery shopping tends to make me tired ha. When I am with someone, I can ask them to just look and pick out for me what I want. When I'm not it's a much more difficult situation. Sometimes I just pretend I can't find something because "there are so many kinds!" and ask someone standing there if they see whatever kind I'm looking for and suffer the embarrassment if it's right in front of my face.

Another is if someone moves my stuff when it is normally in a certain place- one a shelf or desk, for example- I have a very hard time finding it. I think someone else said they relate to this one.

Anyway. I know that processing can often be difficult for those on the spectrum. Was wondering if anyone else can relate to having visual processing issues, if so could you share how they affect you? I'm curious what other peoples' experience might be.

SoL, I think the visualizations are like crossing neuro pathways in the brain, this could be anything, like a trance, or serotonin or dopamine or whatever uptake. I vaguely remember smelling sounds, watching art pictures turn into movies and being at peace for hours watching the walls breath.
Other tales of my misspent youth will not help you. I think Harrison might have a slant on this. He may be your. go to guy.

 

[Epicurean Pariah]

Personally, I don't have a problem with object recognition, but my son did. It became a bit of a pet project of mine back then. Here's an interesting article on the science of it.

How does the brain solve visual object recognition?

With my son we worked on improving his cognitive 'library' through repitition and introducing variations of the same object through angles and scenarios. Took a while but he developed better skills after it all.

H. I hope you are fine today. I may have the opposite thing going on as your son, hope you can find a clue, in this ramble, an extreme example.
Years ago I hunted N.A. Projectiles, arrowheads and especially knives. I would walk the plowed, disked and rained upon farmers fields for days and weeks for years. I could see 10% of the stone exposed in the earth and could "see" the point as well as the orientation of the artifact now matter in what position it rested. I have that controlled. Next
I go to the supermarket to buy breakfast cereal. I turn down the cereal aisle and the floor to ceiling, on both sides of aisle display boxes of cereal to the vanishing point. so overwhelms that I dither and drool until I find something, anything and get out of there. It is quirky.

 

[Progster]

Yes, I do sometimes have these glitches when I'm looking at something and I don't immediately know what it is. I thought it was normal until I read this. It does seem to happen more when I'm stressed and tired. I suppose my brain is overstimulated, visually, and doesn't process so fast.

Edit: That would explain why I have difficulty with moving banners or gif images on websites, or documentaries with scenes that change way too fast - I don't have time to take it all in. I hate it when images don't stay steady!

 

[Datura]

I recall when I was a child I had some very odd visual perceptions. I would often see colored specks floating though the air, or even large blue blobs. It didn't take me long to discern they were illusory, and by the time I was eight or nine I stopped seeing them entirely.

There was also a folding door in front of our closet in the living room. It was white with black flexible plastic between the slats. The black stripes seemed to vibrate when I looked at them, but when I touched them or got sufficiently close it became evident that they were not moving at all, that it was merely my perception. So at the age of three I learned that reality does not always conform to ones perceptions.

I have also experienced the distinct sensation of perceiving objects completely differently once I am familiar with them as opposed to when I am first introduced to them. It is difficult to explain. It is like I see a collection of component forms that leaves me with a certain impression, and then I see an integrated whole that is something else entirely.

Until recently I have been lucky not to experience visual overload. With the change of medications though I find myself increasingly sensitive to visual stimuli. Aside from simple photosensitivity I find that extraneous visual information is both detracting and stress inducing. Just this past weekend I went to a book store and found myself overwhelmed by the colours and patterns, especially as I moved through the space or turned around. Flipping through an illustrated book I felt like my senses were being assaulted and my head hurt. The whole experience was disorienting and exhausting. I could even feel my heart beating faster. When I got home I just had to curl up and shut everything out for a while. I do not envy people who deal with this on a regular basis. I also think I need to stop taking Welbutrin. For whatever reason it does not seem to agree with me.

I agree with what has been said about busy web sites as well. Animated adds and giffs can be terribly annoying. To add insult to injury, a lot of sites have recently introduced these banners that descend from the top of the screen whenever you scroll up. They drive me nuts.

 

[Walsie]

I recall when I was a child I had some very odd visual perceptions. I would often see colored specks floating though the air, or even large blue blobs. It didn't take me long to discern they were illusory, and by the time I was eight or nine I stopped seeing them entirely.

I agree with what has been said about busy web sites as well. Animated adds and giffs can be terribly annoying. To add insult to injury, a lot of sites have recently introduced these banners that descend from the top of the screen whenever you scroll up. They drive me nuts.

The coloured speck stuff is intriguing. I didn't like bright shiny colours as a young child, they drilled into my brain like SAW.

Indeed they are. All those flashing tellys at the train stations, buses and mall also drive me bonkers. I'm so glad this site doesn't have animated avatars.

I've been thinking for a while, for years actually, about how I literally see the world differently. It's one of the things that finally started to actually convince me I'm autistic.

There are specific issues that I think of in terms of visual processing that come up again and again.

The first is not being able to identify objects in regards to context/surroundings. Brains don't usually immediately recognize objects with no other information, it is often the surrounding context [even subconsciously] that assists in identification. If an individual has problems with recognizing larger context, they are going to have trouble immediately recognizing objects- which will have larger repercussions.

One time I was riding with a friend in the car and it had just rained. I saw a bunch of huge teeth in the middle of the street and kind of freaked out. I didn't yell or anything, but definitely asked my friend "WHY are there F-ing TEETH in the middle of the road?" He wasn't really sure how to respond until we put together that I was talking about cherry blossom petals. I don't see them very often, the pavement was really dark.
My brain couldn't really deduce from the surroundings what they were, mostly because my brain isn't used to the situation I think. This exchange only took a couple minutes, but one can imagine how these kind of things can affect social relationships.

Another issue is having difficulty distinguishing between many like objects or among a busy environment- a busy shelf at the grocery store for example. Eventually I just stop being able to understand what I am seeing. This more often happens when I am tired, but grocery shopping tends to make me tired ha. When I am with someone, I can ask them to just look and pick out for me what I want. When I'm not it's a much more difficult situation. Sometimes I just pretend I can't find something because "there are so many kinds!" and ask someone standing there if they see whatever kind I'm looking for and suffer the embarrassment if it's right in front of my face.

Another is if someone moves my stuff when it is normally in a certain place- one a shelf or desk, for example- I have a very hard time finding it. I think someone else said they relate to this one.

Anyway. I know that processing can often be difficult for those on the spectrum. Was wondering if anyone else can relate to having visual processing issues, if so could you share how they affect you? I'm curious what other peoples' experience might be.

You know what, I sometimes see things to you do, get startled, look again and realise what they are, but I have long since learnt to keep that kinda thing to myself. I thought it was just me being spazzy or it's a Paris Hilton moment.

 

[royinpink]

Hm...I relate to parts of this but not to others.

I saw a bunch of huge teeth in the middle of the street and kind of freaked out. I didn't yell or anything, but definitely asked my friend "WHY are there F-ing TEETH in the middle of the road?"

This I do on occasion but not frequently enough that I thought it was odd. Like misrecognizing a pile of objects as a person But I can usually correct fairly quickly, if only because it's so obviously wrong. If I continued to misrecognize it I might think it was more of an issue.

Another issue is having difficulty distinguishing between many like objects or among a busy environment- a busy shelf at the grocery store for example.

Hm... sort of. I don't usually have too much visual trouble at the grocery store, because I am really good at spotting details (or patterns, as Maelstrom said), but the problem is when the environment is FULL of details. I have to scan it, inch by inch, row by row. Sometimes I feel like a robot doing this, lol. Makes me somewhat inefficient at wordsearches. I have to have one thing to look for, so I'll scan the whole thing for -ss checking all the letter combinations around every -ss then the same for -ed, etc. I find it very tiring. Scrabble is also tiring.

ETA: I guess the issue is when there is a pattern I can get a general picture of that in my head and recognize if one or two don't fit the pattern, but when everything is random, I have a lot of trouble finding stuff.

Another is if someone moves my stuff when it is normally in a certain place- one a shelf or desk, for example- I have a very hard time finding it. I think someone else said they relate to this one.

Oh yes, definitely. I get irritated and it starts arguments.

 

[Datura]

the problem is when the environment is FULL of details. I have to scan it, inch by inch, row by row. Sometimes I feel like a robot doing this, lol. Makes me somewhat inefficient at wordsearches (I have to have one thing to look for, so I'll scan the whole thing for -ss checking all the letter combinations around every -ss then the same for -ed, etc. I find it very tiring. Scrabble is also tiring.

That is exactly how I do word searches. Do most people just see the whole word?

 

[watersprite]

I seem to have the odd combination of easily losing things at my house if I don't leave them exactly in their appointed spot, and being able to locate things without trying. I've found someone's wedding ring that fell off while playing touch football in a large field, found a tiny amulet that fell off a guy's mountain bike among many rocks sticks etc. at a campground, found arrowheads, grinding stones, stone knives, etc. without trying - because my brain sees the common patterns and then automatocally finds the anomalies. I've had people ask me to teach them how I do it, but I don't know, I just see this way automatically.
I detest going shopping for this reason. It is horrendous overload and sometimes I have to leave before I start. Large bright busy loud stores = torture.

 

[tree]

That is exactly how I do word searches. Do most people just see the whole word?

I do both ways.
First I circle all the words that jump out (if they
are the ones on the search list.)
Then do the logical 'every X and is there a...whatever
the combination should be' to make the required word.

Those puzzles have lots of words that aren't on the
search list, too. Those also jump out, but that's no
advantage when they're not on the list.

 

[Progster]

Hm... sort of. I don't usually have too much visual trouble at the grocery store, because I am really good at spotting details (or patterns, as Maelstrom said), but the problem is when the environment is FULL of details. I have to scan it, inch by inch, row by row. Sometimes I feel like a robot doing this, lol. Makes me somewhat inefficient at wordsearches. I have to have one thing to look for, so I'll scan the whole thing for -ss checking all the letter combinations around every -ss then the same for -ed, etc. I find it very tiring. Scrabble is also tiring.

This is how I solve word puzzles too. Actually, in my case I would say that it makes me quite efficient at them - I often finish them before others because of my methodical approach, and I'm good at picking out a particular letter from others, I just keep looking for that shape.

When I was a small child I remember not seeing things how they really were sometimes, or seeing things a bit flat like a painting, not in 3 dimensions. For example, at my grandmother's house, the view out of her window didn't look like fields and trees. I saw other shapes, like a bridge. Strange.

And I remember lying in the car staring at the roof, which had a pattern of dots on it, but the dots formed multiple layers which came closer and closer to my face the longer I stared at them. Some sort of optical illusion.

Does anyone have difficulty with light and dark contrast, or with certain colours? Some people like to watch TV in the dark, but I never liked this, because the TV flashes and flickered too much. I hate that. And also, I literally can't read certain colours of font, especially bright colours. I can't read font in light blue, red or any bright colour. Yellow and pink are the worst. They shimmer and hurt my eyes.

 

[royinpink]

the dots formed multiple layers which came closer and closer to my face the longer I stared at them. Some sort of optical illusion.

I spent a lot of time doing this as a child. Basically the 'Magic Eye' trick except I would do it with anything--wallpaper, screens, my fingers (to make it look like I had a piece of finger hovering in the air between my real fingers), etc.

Does anyone have difficulty with light and dark contrast, or with certain colours?

Yes. I don't have it that bad, but it can be a problem with certain shirt patterns or escalator treads. More severe cases would be considered Irlen Syndrome.

 

[Progster]

Yes. I don't have it that bad, but it can be a problem with certain shirt patterns or escalator treads. More severe cases would be considered Irlen Syndrome.

Yes, I have some of the symptoms of Irlen Syndrome but not all of them - certainly my eyes get very sore towards the end of the day, and I get headaches. I reduced the glare of the computer screen but I still have problems.

 

[Vinca]

And I remember lying in the car staring at the roof, which had a pattern of dots on it, but the dots formed multiple layers which came closer and closer to my face the longer I stared at them. Some sort of optical illusion.

I experienced this too! I used to pass my hand through the different layers, it was fun.

 

[Maelstrom]

I experienced this too! I used to pass my hand through the different layers, it was fun.

It sounds like what I do with the magic hidden picture book. I got quite good at it, I would try to look just past the picture and let my eyes unfocus a little and the funny dots would start to twist a little, then things would get a little silvery and poof a 3d picture would appear. It was funny my family would struggle and stare and stare trying to see the hidden pictures, took me a couple of minuets usually...it does make my eyes tired tho.

Hi Vinca

 

[tree]

The walls in my bedroom were plastered so when it was light enough to see
and I was in bed, I'd turn my face to the wall and watch the bumps in the plaster
start moving/going places/being little guys.

 

[Maelstrom]

The walls in my bedroom were plastered so when it was light enough to see
and I was in bed, I'd turn my face to the wall and watch the bumps in the plaster
start moving/going places/being little guys.

Tree, yes my eyes play tricks on me, sometimes I feel like I see things when I'm not paying attention, or in the corners of my eyes and I look back and it's not there. Or shadows and clouds seem to turn into things, I think my mind likes to match things allot...It's a Dragon oops! no it's a very ugly crooked tree. Ha! a Tree loop.. Tree..to.. Tree
I like patterns

 

[SignOfLazarus]

SoL, I think the visualizations are like crossing neuro pathways in the brain, this could be anything, like a trance, or serotonin or dopamine or whatever uptake. I vaguely remember smelling sounds, watching art pictures turn into movies and being at peace for hours watching the walls breath.
Other tales of my misspent youth will not help you. I think Harrison might have a slant on this. He may be your. go to guy.

I'm not referring to illusions or hallucinations, I was actually referring to interpretation of what I see. So how I understand what I am seeing and that I have difficulty with context. My eyes don't "see" something different, but my brain interprets it in a weird way because of difficulty with context.

The tendency toward Gestalt processing is not uncommon in autism, but it's not simple. The Gastalt thing- having difficulty seeing pieces in the context of the whole, is what really REALLY started to convince me and made me look into other processing topics.