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

[Szostak, Christine]

Hi Sandra and all!
  That is exactly like me. I lost my vision about 15.5 years ago, so  in my mid-twenties and I have always visualized everything. I actually do many things exactly as you described in terms of visualizing places... In fact, in my case, there are many situations where I have to stop and think about whether I actually had vision during that experience as I heavily visualize my surroundings almost 100% of the time.
Have a great evening,
Chris

Dr. Christine M. Szostak
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Social Sciences
Shorter University
Rome, Georgia
szostak.1 at osu.edu
cszostak at shorter.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of S L Johnson via blindtlk
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 7:09 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: S L Johnson <SLJohnson25 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] To Visualize or not to Visualize: That is the question:)!

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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