3 ms·

What would an abstract non-existing steeple look like? I mean I see steeples all the time living in Vermont and New York. So it was pretty easy to imagine one

• gknoy 11y ago
  Her TED talk on autism was freaking amazing. Go to about 2 minutes in, and she has a great explanation. http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_... If you'd prefer not to watch it, let me try to explain. For this test, I think of an abstract church-y building (I dunno .. maybe like the size of an old schoolhouse), and then think of a small tower with something pointy on top. When Temple describes it (see her TED talk(s), seriously!), she talks about how, in contrast, she (and frequently other autistic people) imagine a VERY concrete steeple. Concrete as in, you an describe that it's iron on top of brick, with a wooden border along the bottom. You can describe the pattern of ironwork, the guy holding a wheelbarrow on its weathervane, the color of the paint, and the fact that it's been bent from when some local teens NONE of those things are in my first imagined visual image of "steeple". Sure, I can make that kind of thing up, but my natural inclination is not to do so, and I don't remember any specific images of steeples. In contrast, Temple first imagines that complex image of a Specific Thing (often a memory of a specific one she has seen) instead of the abstracted image.
• mchahn 11y ago
  > What would an abstract non-existing steeple look like? I think this answer places you squarely in the non-abstract group. Not that it means anything.