Characteristics

What a picture thinker is or does is still debated, but some research has been done in the Netherlands where picture thinking is called beelddenken. In particular, the Maria J. Krabbe Stichting is doing research. Researchers there have developed a method of detecting picture thinking in young children by using the so called "the world game".

Picture thinkers, as the name indicates, think in pictures, not in the linear fashion using language that is normally associated with thinking. Of course this is a simplification as a complete picture thinker would not be able to use language.

Picture thinkers can come to conclusions in an intuitive way, without reasoning with language. Instead, they manipulate with logical/graphical symbols in a non linear fashion; they “see” the answers to problems.

Picture thinkers are often inventors, architects, engineers, scientists, or mathematicians. One of the most famous picture thinkers was world-renowned Serb-American inventor Nikola Tesla, who was also a physicist, a mechanical engineer, and an electrical engineer. Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history who helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. Other famous picture thinkers include physicist Richard Feynman, and physicist Albert Einstein.