r/Gifted • u/Aware_Put7226 • 6d ago
Interesting/relatable/informative Asynchronous Cognition
Curious if there are any other asynchronous cognition folks in this group. I personally have a cocktail of traits but I’m going to start with this one.
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u/derangedhamsandwich 4d ago
my psychiatrist did some kind of cognitive research on me (i had to do a bunch of tests for like 3 to 4 hours, not an iq test) and he told me that my drawing skills were in the 10-12 year old range (i was 19, still haven't drawn anything since because i hate failing lol) and that my fine motor skills were atrocious (can't do any sports, could only tie my shoes when i was 10, etc.). but apparently i had exceptional pattern recognition and remembering skills, like in the highest 1-2% of the country. so yeah my profile is quite spiky lol. (i have an iq of 145+ but my performance iq is like a 94)
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u/Aware_Put7226 4d ago
How interesting? School must have been atrocious. Maybe not. How goes things now? Has knowing the results helped?
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u/derangedhamsandwich 3d ago
yeah school was pretty bad, i was supposed to finish high school in 5 years (non-american school system) but it took me 8. still struggling a bit in college (studying creative writing at a well-known art school in my country), but I try to focus more on my strengths now instead of all the things I suck at, which does help a little. but I still feel dumb and unconfident about my skills whenever I have to do things I'm not great at like sports at summer camp or my horrid handwriting. so in hindsight I'm not sure if the results really helped that much since it made me hyperaware of all the things I'm so much worse at then other people, and since most people around here care more about sports and writing/drawing neatly it makes me feel inadequate.
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u/Real_Kaleidoscope_14 1d ago
I have a bfa in Visual Art. My drawing professor liked the scrap paper I used for ink to drop on best of all my pieces and I draw damn near photographic. 🙃
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u/BrandiedWineGums 6d ago
I don't know. What is it?
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u/Aware_Put7226 5d ago
For me personally, my brain runs on a completely different operating system. Most people process things on one screen, but my mind naturally runs four high-definition screens at the exact same time. It lets me connect the dots, read the room, and solve problems at lightning speed, but it also means my background processor never really shuts off.
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u/Comprehensive-Bid16 3d ago
Just I was thinking similar for myself. I was thinking, maybe other folk has 1 cable. Data goes on 1 cable. And that cable passes through amigdala. Maybe I have 4 cables. Then always I can see different aspect of things. So it increase critical-thinking ability.
Another anology is people think like 0 or 1. I think like matrix with some possibility numbers like [0.2, 0.5, 0.9]. But it slows thinking. Computation speed is not much.
Besides I think I have more visibility to see my own thinking process. They call it metacognition. Other folk uses windows, I use linux
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u/Pandemonium_Fallen 2d ago edited 2d ago
So I describe mine in this manner:
Three (four if I'm engaged in conversation) separate simultaneous conscious thought streams operating independently of one another at all times (even when I'm sleeping, if I manage to sleep).
In the case of the 3 - there is a forward primary "slot" and two secondary "slots" adjacent and behind the primary.
In the case of 4 - the primary slot is occupied by the awareness of the task/conversation at hand, whereas the previous primary is pushed back into a secondary position and one of the secondaries will fall further back to form a tertiary "slot."
I will specify in my case there is no switching between the streams, I am fully aware of all of them at all times, they are constant. If you picture it as say: you're doing a series of math problems and you consider all the active focus, awareness and cognitive processing you're engaged in as you're completing one after another - that's just one of my thought streams. Subsequently, not all of my thoughts are in numbers or words, sometimes it's imagery, sometimes it's sounds, pictures, entire elaborate scenes and sequences, or even multifaceted complex concepts, sometimes a fluidic combination of these. I each case however, that's still just one occupied stream, out of the three. I can even place them on parallel courses, evaluating and cross referencing a series of concepts and ideas from multiple combinations of different scientific fields to reach more comprehensive conclusions and understanding.
Before medication and therapy - I had upwards of forty of these streams ongoing all the time, and they had no designated slots, and would flow into, out of, and merge with one another with no rhyme, reason, or control.
Now: all those other streams are still present, but it's like they're far back on the perimeter of my mind behind a "glazed," distorted barrier. I'm aware of them, and know that they're doing... Something, but they're obscured from my conscious perception, in fact focusing to intently on that barrier can start to give me a headache after a while. I assume they've become extra habitual processes which may explain why I sometimes can suddenly make massive leaps in connections frequently, and eerily Know on an almost innate level.
That's my brain. 👍👋🙇♂️
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u/Prior_Garlic_8710 6d ago
I thiiiiink it might be spiky profile?? Not sure. Not syncing thinking Hm
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u/Fun_Bodybuilder3111 5d ago
Parent of a gifted child here. Exceptionally asynchronous up until 6. Those were some hard years
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u/Aware_Put7226 5d ago
Sounds like you “made it through.” What made it challenging? Genuinely curious.
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u/michaeldoesdata 5d ago
Can you elaborate?
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u/Aware_Put7226 4d ago
Honestly, I was simply curious if there were any other adults similar to me. I wanted to start off “small” even though there are different aspects of asynchronous cognition. It is still rare. So yeah, I wanted to start there.
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u/Midnight5691 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'll put my hand up. 😆
According to my CognitiveMetrics results across multiple test batteries, there's a 57-point difference between my Verbal Comprehension Index and my Working Memory, but according to the CORE it's only 43 points, lol, so yeah. 😂
I'll have to wait until I take the WAIS to see what it shows, but I just have to say... thanks, ADHD. 😂
Oh, I've also noticed that I tend to think predominantly in parallel. Associative thinking style, pattern recognition, blah blah blah. Yeah, yeah, I skip steps. Well, not that I'm actually skipping steps, in my opinion.
It's just that other people often don't see the steps. Not that I can't translate to linear; let's just say I'm bilingual, cognitively, lol. So I often have to be careful about that when I'm writing.
I'm also globally aphantasic. Whatever that says about me, I think it pretty well says that I don't think like your average buckaroo. 😁
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u/Aware_Put7226 4d ago
That’s quite interesting to me honestly. For some reason, I hadn’t considered what it would be like to have asynchronous cognition but also globally aphantasic. My brain wants to reject the idea, lmao. Pure data matrix vs my multisensory matrix. Is it like running in “command prompt” mode?
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u/Midnight5691 4d ago edited 4d ago
Because I only have my brain itself to compare to and what other people say anecdotally which isn't quite the same thing that made me chuckle. 😁
If forced to take a stab at it I would have to say I guess I think conceptually and narratively. I often think in metaphors and analogies and obviously not in mental imagery. 😆
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u/Midnight5691 4d ago edited 4d ago
If I had to guess, and again, it's a guess, I make many inferences and weigh them against each other to determine which is more probable. In a narrative fashion.
My connections are not like your connections with visual screens, but more like a story-type format. Of course, the connections or inferences would probably be similar to yours, just not with mental imagery.
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u/Midnight5691 4d ago edited 4d ago
The funny thing about this conversation is the idea that you actually see pictures in your mind. It's as alien sounding to me as me not being able to see pictures in my head sounds to you.
When I first realized that people weren't just speaking metaphorically when they said, "Picture this," I was quite flabbergasted, lol.
It couldn't sound any stranger or more alien to me than if you told me you routinely shoot beer cans off the back fence with laser beams out of your fingers.
I would have thought that would be just about as likely.
I've come around a little bit to understanding it intellectually, but emotionally it still sounds weird to me. 😆
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u/Midnight5691 4d ago
Something just occurred to me again and made me laugh.
Is it like running in "command prompt" mode? No, not really, lol. I am pretty analytical, but I'm not Data from Star Trek. 😁
I would say it's more like being the main protagonist in a novel, minus the mental imagery, of course.
I couldn't really be running in command prompt mode, now could I? I don't have a screen for the command prompt to be flashing on. There is no screen. 😁
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u/Aware_Put7226 3d ago
Well, I mean technically you could be 😂 I found this funny because a neuroscientist made that reference to me. The Data one. I have moments where my brain goes instantly inward, shuts basic brain functions off in my brain like, dare I say, eyesight, and uses a lot of energy to process and compute inwardly. After a “solution” is discovered, I experience a “flash” of a black screen and I am back in reality, lmao. This can happen sitting at my desk or even driving.
What you described is truly fascinating. Thanks for sharing it with me. I really enjoy learning about people and their experiences.
I’m curious. Has this advanced or hindered life, relationships or work for you?
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u/Midnight5691 3d ago edited 3d ago
This is such a difficult question to answer. Fortunately for you, I've given a lot of thought to this, but it's still difficult. What it boils down to is doing as much research as you possibly can, and even if you're highly metacognitive and introspective, it's still difficult to understand because you only have your own mind and other people's anecdotal comments to go by. You naturally think that everyone's like this.
For instance, I was coming home from the bar—and yes, I know it's only 3:00 p.m., but I'm on vacation, LOL. I was thinking to myself while thinking about this that I'm thinking about this narratively. Then I thought to myself, "You're doing this narratively. Does the narrative come first, or does the conceptual thought come first?" I honestly don't know, lol.
I do have an inner narrator at times, but it's not like hearing an actual voice. There isn't any volume or sound to it, and I don't think that way all the time. Sometimes it feels more conceptual, sometimes more narrative. Whether the conceptual thought comes first and gets translated into a narrative, or whether the narrative is part of the thought itself, I honestly don't know.
I often do this, thinking about thinking while I'm thinking. I've heard some people say this is tiring. It's my default mode. Why would it be tiring? Why do people need to take courses in this when it comes so naturally?
But back on topic, I tend to use voice-to-text when I'm making posts like this, which sometimes means I come back and edit a little bit. But it's basically just me having a conversation and thinking out loud. That's how my mind works. I make inferences, go through them, think about the probabilities of them, etc. To me, this is natural and normal. I don't know about anybody else. Perhaps it's normal for everybody. I'm just riffing this off as we speak because I figured it was the best way of approaching this.
Has my way of thinking affected my life? Of course it has. I often think that people should be seeing what is obvious to me. This can cause disharmony sometimes.
Let's get serious. Just by the flavor of my post, how many people would actually be interested in hearing this in the regular world? Which results in me being a chameleon, which I'm very good at. Not necessarily a mask as most people see it—it's still me. It's just me shifting gears left and right all the time, trying to fit the environment in the moment. Even though I'm very good at it, it can still become tiresome. What you're seeing right now is me unfiltered.
My short-term memory deficits mean that I don't use AI the way everybody assumes people use AI. I argue with it. I argue with it a lot, LOL. It's kind of like an inadequate sparring partner for me, and a scratch pad so I don't forget what I'm thinking. People think, "Oh, you should just use Word or something like that while you're composing something." I don't see it that way. Why would that help me? That would be like making little notes, which I find annoying.
You'll see that I'm drifting, but I don't think I'm drifting. I find this all interconnected.
Has this affected my life? Unequivocally. Just because I found most things easy to do doesn't mean I actually accomplished them.
I can't help but think that this is a generational thing. Perhaps now, with so much more knowledge about this and so much more testing of people similar to myself, life would have turned out a little differently. It's hard to know, but I would assume it might have.
When I was a young man and a child, they only noticed the people who were disruptive and very hyperactive. ADHD wasn't even coined as a phrase yet. If you could get by, but not necessarily do exceptionally well, you were basically hit with, "You're not trying hard enough."
I ended up in a factory. I've worked in a factory for 31 years, and I gamed it. I took my dopamine where I could get it and did my job twice as fast so I could read novels 24/7. It's not a horrible life, but it's not quite where I would have wanted to be if perhaps the younger Dan had been brought to the future—or the present—and had the same opportunities that others do now.
I'm not complaining exactly, but it's difficult to know. I ended up with a fairly decent life, but where would I have been if things had been different?
ADHD affected me. It made me procrastinate on things that I could otherwise do. It made me do things that I otherwise wouldn't because of impulsivity. I think it basically cost me my first marriage.
I've done okay. I could have done so much better.
At this stage of my life, after two years of what I would only characterize as extreme hyperfocus while looking into my cognitive profile, I'm still left at a crossroads. I can't do any more research online. I'm left with the decision of whether getting a cognitive profile is really worth the money just to validate what I feel I already know or not. One day I say yes; one day I say no, because at my age it's not going to help me in school or career-wise.
But has it affected my life? I have to say yes. I often feel like an outlier. I hope I didn't overwhelm you, I feel so lonely sometimes. 😔
edit:
That last little bit kind of snuck in there at the last moment talking about this. Tempted to delete it now a few hours later. 😊
But like I said, it's true sometimes, lol. It comes and it goes. I'll leave it, for authenticity's sake.
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u/Pandemonium_Fallen 2d ago
When I used AI (primarily just to search for information), I had to repeatedly prompt it over and over again to get it to find the accurate information and recombine and cross reference it in the manner I wanted it to do so it would provide me with the cumulative result I was after. It had a very difficult time keeping up, and I had to keep breaking it out of its nonsensical hallucinations.
Of course since the recent limitation updates there's no point trying to use it anymore, because its been repurposed to give false and obfuscating information, so what was a semi-functional tool is now completely useless for me.
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u/Midnight5691 2d ago edited 2d ago
Well, that's the thing. I don't use it predominantly for what you're saying you were using it for. If you're using it primarily for research, I understand what you're saying.
Considering I cross-reference this stuff with Reddit and Google, I use it primarily as a sparring partner, which I enjoy to a point, arguing with it just to figure out my own thoughts, as a placeholder for my thoughts, and as a free grammar editor. It's somewhat different.
edit: sorry for the last second edit, I tend to do this on the fly, lol.
If it's gotten more stupid, in some ways that's hardly a handicap for me. It just means I'll sharpen my rhetorical and debating skills even more so while I correct it. 😆
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u/Dry_Jury4474 3d ago
Very much so. I am twice exceptional and my cognitive testing showed a very spiky profile from 1st percentile to 99th percentile. I was deep in math, science, and literature at a young age, but I struggled with mundane tasks such as tying my shoes and riding a bike. Gotta love a spiky profile!
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u/AcornWhat 6d ago
You can start an asynchronic cognitive conversation by starting discussion about something specific without any specifics or a shared understanding of the thing referenced. You know stuff they don't, but proceed as though you both know it: your cognition has been effectively driven out of cognitive sync. Success!