Can blind people 'picture' things mentally?

Luke Geldmacher 1462

I had two different friends I met that are blind, one from birth, and another from an accident when she was 8. I asked him this question and he told me that he doesnt think in pictures but in smells, sounds, and touch. So he can remember things in that way. Whereas the woman told me that she still can see things in her mind in they are early memories, like of her mother, her first house, etc. Anything after the accident is the same as the other man.

Srđan Tufegdžić 2341

In my highschool I had classes of psychology. I remember there were experiments that shown us that babies are born with some preconception of shapes like circle, triangle, square etc. So I guess that blind people can build on that base that is gven to us all. As said earlier it is known that they can perceive environment with use of other senses instead of vision. Although I doubt that process is as effective as actuall seeing object (as far as I remember 80% information we get is by seeing) it is known that they develop those sensory perception well beyond average human do so I guess they can compensate for their disability to some degree. If they can't mentally visualise colors that is small loss since there are people that can see very well but still can't seee colors. If they can create mental image of an object even in black-and-white that is still good.

That thing about guy that uses echolocation is amazing (Danielle please post a link if you can find it). I remember that there was an experiment (in perception) where they placed guy in the center of the room. Guy at the one end of that room standing facing to his face (or back no matter) made a sound like claping hands. Person had difficulty to find a position of sound sorce (is it in front of him or behind him) since sound source is equally distanced from its ears and sounds bounce of front and back wal. So that guy is most likely changing angle of his head or changing position slightly to be able to determine is he getting the bouncing echo from object in front or behind him. The thing with part of brain responsible for seeing process is also interesting. It seems there is a truth in that "don't believe always to your eyes";-). And autistic people have similar problem like blind people. Blind people must rewire their brain to be able to do the task they aren't able to accomplish due to disability. Autistic people have problem as their brain is rewired the wrong way...so no problem there are similarities. I remember that some autistic people have problem with seeing in a sense that they can't process the picture in a way we do. We see things but in doing so we extract significatn info and reduce a number and scope of information brain had to process. It seems that some autistic person can't do that which cause their brain to become overwhelmed (imagine seeing tree but your brain is tring to process every leaf on that tree in the same time) causing fear and panic attacks and rest of the problems of autism. That is very similar to the problem with implants Misti described here.

Jim that link is awesome! How on earth he knows what colour to use is beyond me. Maybe he was thought that way or has a little helper but anyway those pictures are still great for a blind person. Maybe he can sense how warm some object is and have learn from people who have good vision what colour people associate with that warmth and he use it? Anyway all that switching senses thing remind me on LSD experiments :-)...can you please tell me what is the taste of that colour?

Becca Elán 2397

My aunt is blind, and the simple answer is, Yes.

A more complicated answer is that there are varying degrees of medical blindness. Some people are blind from birth, as you noted, like my aunt. Some are blind later on and still have memory of vision. But if you go to guide dogs for the blind, everything is green; floors, furniture... The reason is that green is the last color a legally blind person can see.

That is to highlight, the fact that some people who are blind cannot see, but they can discern shadows and highlights, and some people are blind to a degree with single color vision. It's not color blindness, it's different. Keep in mind there are also people who are synesthetic, as joseph noted.

Cameron Trickey 2333

Sorry, not really answering your question, although what Joseph is referring to is a blind friend of mine who frequently dreams with vision. He was being chased by a duck once! I know he likes to eat them... so why not.

I'm interested by your numbers reference Joseph. There's an english guy called the brain man who's autistic. Very much socialy functional though. He holds the world record for reciting the largest number of decimals in Pi. He also learnt icelandic in a week and in general is quite ridiculous. The interesting thing is, when asked a mathematical question, he sees colours and they represent a number. He then speaks the appropriate number and he is right.

There are some that argue that he is tapping into that field of energy where all energy comes from (remembering that a thought is energy, which can be neither created nor destroyed so it has to come from somwhere). When we dream we all do so at the same frequency and it has again been argued that we reach a state of consciousness that can allow us to tap into something greater. Now I'm not agreeing with all this, I haven't done the research, but I find it interesting that blind people associate in the same way that autistic people can and that those on the 'fringes', let us say, and in unrelated fields are postulating with the same conculsions.

I just think that's kinda cool!

Joseph Morgan 2400

Yeah Misti - I've met a couple of people with implants - and both wished they had never gotten them. Both were adults, but they probably would've adapted better if they were kids.

What's also interesting, Brent, is they did a study to determine what part of the brain is used in visual recall - and they determined that it is the same area that we use for sight that we use to remember something we've seen - so the mind really doesn't differentiate form seeing or recall of things seen. I think that is really interesting.

Misti Furr 2390

Another interesting thought...what is it like for someone to regain senses. There is a book (can't remember the name) where someone did case studies of people who were born blind and then they "regained" sight, surgically. The study talked about how hard it was for them to understand what they saw. For instance: We see a tree, they see the individual leaves with intense light surrounding each leaf (the space around each leaf). This particular instance was actually painful for the man who "saw" it.
I also watched a show the other day that dealt with an older couple who were given cochlear implants (both were deaf from birth). Their response to the stimulas from sound was quite different. The man seemed to adjust quite well, the woman felt that the sound was almost painful.
Great question! How we process information, as adults, as children, as someone with a "disability" is something that has always fascinated me.

Joseph Morgan 2400

I've done some research on this, spurred into interest by Cameron. To a blind person, they "see" although what they see is hard to describe. Many relate to synthesisia - using sensory substitutes for concepts - ie the number 4 is green, 9 is red and so on. Now when they see red, some see sound, some feel tactility, and so on. It's hard for me to get my mind around it, for vision rules my world.
I am reminded of other questions along this line that bother me - When deaf people think, do they do so in sign language? How long does it take someone where English is their second language to think in English? I know I never think in Korean, (I speak it) it's a translation game in my head when I communicate in it, but I have dreamed in Korean - can't figure out that for the life of me.
Good question.

Danielle Shanley 2399

My husband and I reciently watched a program about a man that uses "echo-location" to "see" the world around him. He teaches others how to do the same. It's AMAZING!!! He makes click sounds with his mouth and then discribes everything around him (trees, houses, buildings, poles, etc.) It is SOOOOOOO cool!! i am not sure if he was able to actually see at one point in his life, but the people he was teaching, some were blind from birth. He teaches them to "draw mental maps" of thier surroundings!!!

This is a question I often wonder about. Same thing for babies, how do they dream? think? etc.

Jim Williams 2367

I watched a program recently about a man, Esref Armagan. He was born with no eyes at all and paints for a living. He was tested by being brought to a building with a very complex geometric design and was asked to draw it. Amazingly he DID!!!!! And incredibly accurately. Including detail and depth.

http://www.armagan.com/

The man claims that he visualizes things with his fingers and just draws what he "sees". He was also scanned while drawing and the Doctors found that the area of the brain that was responsible for sight was highly active, more so than a sighted person. Which completely puzzled everyone as he was not just blind but had no eyes or connections to the brain.

Just another indication that our minds are incredibly powerful and we have not even begun to understand nor comprehend it's limits.