Visual Thinking vs Verbal Thinking

How We Think

There are two main ways in how we think or process information. One way is to think visually and the other way is to think verbally, and your intelligence doesn’t play a role in the way we think or process information.

Let me explain visual thinking.

When people are strong visual thinkers, they think by seeing ‘pictures’ in their head – which is a bit like watching a movie. The speed of visual thinking is very fast – where there is a lot of information processed at once.
The other main way people think or process information in their head is to use verbal thinking. Verbal thinkers think with words – a bit like talking to yourself in your head. The words follow the linear structure of language, and verbal thinkers think at the same speed as when they speak out loud.

We can usually do both types of thinking, visual and verbal.
I’m a verbal thinker. I like to think by ‘talking’ to myself in my head. I can visualise too. If you asked me to visualise The Sydney Harbour Bridge, I could because I’ve seen it and have it recorded in my visual memory. But, if you asked me to visualise something I haven’t seen, I couldn’t do it.
We know what our preferred way of thinking is by knowing what we do under pressure. When I am under pressure, the conversation in my head is quicker and I talk to myself faster.
For visual thinkers, the pictures go faster. So how do you think?

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