[Blindtlk] To Visualize or not to Visualize: That is the question:)!

[S L Johnson]

Hello Chris:

What an interesting question.  For me, the answer is defiantly yes.  I was 
born legally blind and lost all vision when I was sixteen years old.  Almost 
immediately after my failed detached retina surgery I began visualizing 
everything as if I could still see it. In my mind, I see everything around 
me.  As I travel with my guide dog, I feel as if I can see my surroundings 
as we pass by.  When I enter a room or building, I form a mental image as if 
I were looking at it.  My mom says I move around the house and do daily 
activities as if I can still see.  This ability helped me tremendously when 
acting and performing in musicals and operas.  Thanks so much for opening up 
this discussion.

Sandra

-----Original Message----- 
From: Szostak, Christine via blindtlk
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 6:40 PM
To: acb-l ; Blind Talk Mailing List
Cc: Szostak, Christine
Subject: [Blindtlk] To Visualize or not to Visualize: That is the 
question:)!

Hi All,
  I have a question I would love to pose to the list. This comes from a 
discussion that I was having with the students in one of the classes I am 
teaching this morning.

We were talking about whether the students  believed that if they were to 
lose all of their vision as adults, would they visualize their surroundings 
(i.e., having visual spatial maps of locations in your head, picturing  what 
others look like, picturing what you are physically doing...). This lead to 
a really engaging and actually quite positive and eye-opening so-to-speak 
discussion that was really encouraging to see. The discussion was part of an 
upper-level course in psychology.

  Thus, based on their discussion, I was curious what others here  who lost 
all or at least all usable vision during adulthood do? In other words, do 
you visualize or not and why?

  I have to say that I was really  pleasantly surprised about how open and 
professional they acted about the question when having to discuss it in 
front of me as this is exactly my situation (lost total vision as a young 
adult).
Have a wonderful almost weekend all!
Chris
Dr. Christine M. Szostak
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Social Sciences
Shorter University
Rome, Georgia
szostak.1 at osu.edu<mailto:szostak.1 at osu.edu>
cszostak at shorter.edu

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