Grandin Temple
Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 May 27;364(1522):1437-42. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0297.
My mind is similar to an Internet search engine that searches for photographs. I use language to narrate the photo-realistic pictures that pop up in my imagination. When I design equipment for the cattle industry, I can test run it in my imagination similar to a virtual reality computer program. All my thinking is associative and not linear. To form concepts, I sort pictures into categories similar to computer files. To form the concept of orange, I see many different orange objects, such as oranges, pumpkins, orange juice and marmalade. I have observed that there are three different specialized autistic/Asperger cognitive types. They are: (i) visual thinkers such as I who are often poor at algebra, (ii) pattern thinkers such as Daniel Tammet who excel in math and music but may have problems with reading or writing composition, and (iii) verbal specialists who are good at talking and writing but they lack visual skills.
我的思维类似于一个搜索照片的互联网搜索引擎。我用语言来叙述在我想象中弹出的逼真画面。当我为养牛业设计设备时，我可以在想象中进行试运行，就像一个虚拟现实计算机程序一样。我所有的思维都是联想式的，而非线性的。为了形成概念，我会像整理计算机文件一样将图片分类。为了形成橙色的概念，我会看到许多不同的橙色物体，比如橙子、南瓜、橙汁和果酱。我观察到有三种不同的特殊自闭症/阿斯伯格认知类型。它们是：（i）像我这样的视觉思考者，代数往往较差；（ii）像丹尼尔·塔米特这样的模式思考者，在数学和音乐方面表现出色，但在阅读或写作作文方面可能有问题；（iii）语言专家，擅长交谈和写作，但缺乏视觉技能。
