Editing Visual thinking (section)

{{short description|Thinking through visual processing}}
{{redirect|Thinking in pictures|the book by Temple Grandin|Thinking in Pictures}}
{{distinguish|Spatial visualization ability}}
{{More citations needed|date =January 2009}}

'''Visual thinking''', also called '''visual''' or '''spatial learning''' or '''picture thinking''', is the phenomenon of thinking through [[visual processing]].{{sfn|Deza|2009|p=526}} Visual thinking has been described as seeing words as a series of pictures.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silverman |first=Linda Kreger |title=Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner |date=2002-01-01 |publisher=DeLeon Publishing |isbn=978-1-932186-00-0 |edition=First |location=Denver, Colo |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Silverman |first=Linda Kreger |title=Visual-Spatial Learners: A Handbook for Teachers" by Linda Kreger Silverman. |publisher=DeLeon Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=193218600X |edition=first}}</ref> It is common in approximately 60–65% of the general population.{{sfn|Deza|2009|p=526}} "Real picture thinkers", those who use visual thinking almost to the exclusion of other kinds of thinking, make up a smaller percentage of the population. Research by child development theorist Linda Kreger Silverman suggests that less than 30% of the population strongly uses visual/spatial thinking, another 45% uses both visual/spatial thinking and thinking in the form of words, and 25% thinks exclusively in words. According to Kreger Silverman, of the 30% of the general population who use visual/spatial thinking, only a small percentage would use this style over and above all other forms of thinking, and can be said to be true "picture thinkers".{{sfn|Silverman|2005}}