- think of a cube
- bisect it vertically
- bisect it vertically again
- and again, horizontally.
Now, how many pieces have you?
How did you reach that answer, by visualisation or abstract reasoning?
What was it made of?
What did you cut it with?
What colour was it?
Was there any débris when you cut it - sawdust etc?
Eight pieces, if all of the pieces were bisected in the final cut;
Through visualisation step-by-step as I was reading the instructions here;
The cube had the texture of cheddar cheese;
I cut it with an imaginary knife, and the knife was invisible - I was focussing on the cube;
The cube was black on the outside and white inside;
There was no debris afterwards.
I sew, and when I'm planning to make something from multiple pieces of fabric, I imagine the finished product then disassemble it in my mind, in order to design the separate pieces, and the seam allowance for each piece. Then I sketch these pieces so I don't forget what I've planned to do.
I make furniture which I design in my mind, then capture that design with pencil and paper so I don't forget it. There though, especially if there are too many pieces (or details) to remember, the paper plan gives me the opportunity to refine the design. and I will draw it four or five times, making minor improvements each time, usually refining the joints.
I can rearrange the furniture in a room for an optimal layout, in my mind.
At work I need to imagine the flow of crowds of people through buildings, and position staff at the 'bottlenecks'.
I break eye contact with any other people in the room in order to visualise what we're talking about and in order to concentrate on it.
It's only in reading this thread that I'm learning that some people don't visualise objects and spaces in this way, while others may not visualise to the same extent; I suspect phantasia is a spectrum of its own, where each of us occupies a certain position. I also feel we're dealing with a few distinct categories of visualisation here: the manipulation of imaginary objects to plan their construction seems categorically different from 'photographic memory', for instance, and different from recalling flavours. It should be possible to rank highly in some of those skills and not others, shouldn't it?
