Careers that primarily utilize Perceptual Reasoning?
March 8, 2020 10:59 PM Subscribe
I’m a decent writer and communicator, but I’m a slow reader. I grew up thinking I was Dyslexic or maybe even stupid. A recent cognition test revealed that I have a higher than average IQ, but reading is a challenge for me because my cognition predominantly favors Perceptual Reasoning. What kind of job(s) will allow me to capitalize on this and express my full potential?
Is it possible to work in a field that won’t require a lot of reading, but will allow me to spatially structure information nonverbally? This could mean workflows, presentations, storyboarding, information architecture, data visualization, user experience, even physical architecture, etc. Searching for “jobs that don’t require a lot of reading” returns results like Florist, Day Laborer, Animal Welfare Clerk, etc.
What else is out there?
Perceptual Reasoning is defined as “the ability to think and reason using pictures/visual information. It is the ability to ‘see’ what is being asked, to understand and respond, and to organise information in one’s head through images. Perceptual Reasoning is an ability to manipulate abstract thoughts into visual thoughts (visual spatial skills), and to reason with rules, generalisations, and logical thinking.“ via https://cee.mggs.vic.edu.au/difficulty/perceptual-reasoning/
An example of this is that I never studied the textbooks in my college Computer Science classes, yet always scored A+ grades. Nonverbal fluid reasoning feels like a breezy game to me. I just don’t know enough about my options to know where to focus.
Is it possible to work in a field that won’t require a lot of reading, but will allow me to spatially structure information nonverbally? This could mean workflows, presentations, storyboarding, information architecture, data visualization, user experience, even physical architecture, etc. Searching for “jobs that don’t require a lot of reading” returns results like Florist, Day Laborer, Animal Welfare Clerk, etc.
What else is out there?
Perceptual Reasoning is defined as “the ability to think and reason using pictures/visual information. It is the ability to ‘see’ what is being asked, to understand and respond, and to organise information in one’s head through images. Perceptual Reasoning is an ability to manipulate abstract thoughts into visual thoughts (visual spatial skills), and to reason with rules, generalisations, and logical thinking.“ via https://cee.mggs.vic.edu.au/difficulty/perceptual-reasoning/
An example of this is that I never studied the textbooks in my college Computer Science classes, yet always scored A+ grades. Nonverbal fluid reasoning feels like a breezy game to me. I just don’t know enough about my options to know where to focus.
Business consulting is mostly about holding meetings, building powerpoint presentations, and working with data in Excel. There are a lot of emails to read, but depending on the client / company you are working for, those may not be too bad.
posted by chiefthe at 7:50 AM on March 9, 2020
posted by chiefthe at 7:50 AM on March 9, 2020
I'm surprised you don't address programming in your question -- have you already tried it?
posted by amtho at 8:48 AM on March 9, 2020
posted by amtho at 8:48 AM on March 9, 2020
Response by poster: Thank you for these responses. Here are my thoughts on what’s been said so far.
Architecture: I’d heard this was true of things like interior design, but didn’t know it was true for architecture as well. Although my skills would likely be used well, you’re right that it seems like the job wouldn’t provide for a good lifestyle.
Drafting / BIM: Seems the same as architecture, right?
Construction: I would have a lot of fun building things, but am a slender woman and don’t really see myself going into this field. I like the idea of things like woodworking, pottery, laser cutting, fabrication, etc.
Business consulting: This is good to know, but doesn’t someone need a background in business in order to be good at this? I haven’t ever conceptualized business as a spatial discipline.
User Experience / Product Design: This seems like something I could do. Does anyone here know if the day-to-day reality of working in these fields requires long reading activities?
Programming: I would be happy to properly get into programming, and think I would be good at it, although I’m not sure where to begin or which types would tap into Perceptual Reasoning the most. Is there a recommended resource for exploring this?
posted by hot_tea at 10:05 AM on March 9, 2020
Architecture: I’d heard this was true of things like interior design, but didn’t know it was true for architecture as well. Although my skills would likely be used well, you’re right that it seems like the job wouldn’t provide for a good lifestyle.
Drafting / BIM: Seems the same as architecture, right?
Construction: I would have a lot of fun building things, but am a slender woman and don’t really see myself going into this field. I like the idea of things like woodworking, pottery, laser cutting, fabrication, etc.
Business consulting: This is good to know, but doesn’t someone need a background in business in order to be good at this? I haven’t ever conceptualized business as a spatial discipline.
User Experience / Product Design: This seems like something I could do. Does anyone here know if the day-to-day reality of working in these fields requires long reading activities?
Programming: I would be happy to properly get into programming, and think I would be good at it, although I’m not sure where to begin or which types would tap into Perceptual Reasoning the most. Is there a recommended resource for exploring this?
posted by hot_tea at 10:05 AM on March 9, 2020
One of my siblings has very similar issues/strengths. He trained as an accountant and is now very happy and well paid working in finance-related stuff I don't fully understand but which he finds challenging and interesting. He gets to use all his analytical skills and people skills, and no one minds that his handwriting is barely legible, his spelling atrocious, and his reading very slow.
This may be a tangent, but perhaps it might also be worth figuring out if your slow reading is a vision issue, because there are some quick fixes for that.
When you look at words on a page, are the other words on either side blurry? When you look at a white page, does it appear to be swirling or 'snowy'? When you are driving at night, do lights dazzle and appear to spray out rays in all directions, rather than just sit where they are?
Some of these are visual issues that can be solved by laying a piece of transparent colored plastic over the page before you read it, or wearing slightly tinted glasses. But I think (from another family member who has this issue) you have to experiment a bit to find out what color works for you.
posted by EllaEm at 10:15 AM on March 9, 2020
This may be a tangent, but perhaps it might also be worth figuring out if your slow reading is a vision issue, because there are some quick fixes for that.
When you look at words on a page, are the other words on either side blurry? When you look at a white page, does it appear to be swirling or 'snowy'? When you are driving at night, do lights dazzle and appear to spray out rays in all directions, rather than just sit where they are?
Some of these are visual issues that can be solved by laying a piece of transparent colored plastic over the page before you read it, or wearing slightly tinted glasses. But I think (from another family member who has this issue) you have to experiment a bit to find out what color works for you.
posted by EllaEm at 10:15 AM on March 9, 2020
Response by poster: EllaEm - I’d never considered Accounting before. That’s an inspiring story.
And thanks, I have worked with professionals around this, and it isn’t a visual issue for me, but a cognitive one.
The way I describe it is that if I were to learn something in the style of the alphabet, it’s a set of disparate pieces of data which aren’t functioning dynamically within a contiguous whole. I bang my head against these static details, and find myself reading the same sentence at the beginning of a paragraph over and over again while I keep spacing out as I associate them with related ideas through permutations of contextual relationship. Most information is organized this way, unfortunately, because it’s a dominant mode of thought in the West.
If, rather than the alphabet (to extend this comparison), I were to learn through whole sentences used in context, I would rapidly understand how each element (words, letters, grammar, inflection, etc) are used, through their natural behavior in relation to the dynamic contextual process.
I hope that makes sense. When info is organized this way, I am very quick to process it, even while reading. I enjoy consuming and creating infographics, for example. But when it’s the other way, it’s agonizingly slow for me.
posted by hot_tea at 10:40 AM on March 9, 2020
And thanks, I have worked with professionals around this, and it isn’t a visual issue for me, but a cognitive one.
The way I describe it is that if I were to learn something in the style of the alphabet, it’s a set of disparate pieces of data which aren’t functioning dynamically within a contiguous whole. I bang my head against these static details, and find myself reading the same sentence at the beginning of a paragraph over and over again while I keep spacing out as I associate them with related ideas through permutations of contextual relationship. Most information is organized this way, unfortunately, because it’s a dominant mode of thought in the West.
If, rather than the alphabet (to extend this comparison), I were to learn through whole sentences used in context, I would rapidly understand how each element (words, letters, grammar, inflection, etc) are used, through their natural behavior in relation to the dynamic contextual process.
I hope that makes sense. When info is organized this way, I am very quick to process it, even while reading. I enjoy consuming and creating infographics, for example. But when it’s the other way, it’s agonizingly slow for me.
posted by hot_tea at 10:40 AM on March 9, 2020
How are your people skills? Counseling, especially if you work with couples or families, requires an ability to take verbal and nonverbal input while developing a hypothesis, based on training as to what would be helpful in the moment and then adjusting moment by moment to try maintain focus on your goal while keeping connection and alignment with every one in the room. Definitely requires a very holistic thinking to see the parts and whole, try to influence the system and then adjust in real time.
Very little reading and writing (expect for writing your own notes) once you get to the stage of actually working with clients.
posted by metahawk at 11:30 AM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Very little reading and writing (expect for writing your own notes) once you get to the stage of actually working with clients.
posted by metahawk at 11:30 AM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Glad it helped! And no worries about the vision thing -- it was just a suggestion.
I totally get what you are saying about not being able to grasp disparate bits of information. I would argue that that is a specific form of dyslexia (in fact, a couple of years ago I did here!).
But on the plus side, the dyslexics I know who have this issue are very, very good at complex thinking and reasoning, and specifically making creative connections to solve complex problems. It seems this might be what you mean by perceptual reasoning -- I'm glad to have a name for it.
The most complex contradictory problems are ones that involve people, their emotions and the ever changing meanings they give to things. So perhaps you'd also thrive in 'figuring people out' professions as well, like as a mediator or counselor.
posted by EllaEm at 1:14 PM on March 9, 2020
I totally get what you are saying about not being able to grasp disparate bits of information. I would argue that that is a specific form of dyslexia (in fact, a couple of years ago I did here!).
But on the plus side, the dyslexics I know who have this issue are very, very good at complex thinking and reasoning, and specifically making creative connections to solve complex problems. It seems this might be what you mean by perceptual reasoning -- I'm glad to have a name for it.
The most complex contradictory problems are ones that involve people, their emotions and the ever changing meanings they give to things. So perhaps you'd also thrive in 'figuring people out' professions as well, like as a mediator or counselor.
posted by EllaEm at 1:14 PM on March 9, 2020
Response by poster: Counseling (and Mediation): I’ve worked in the healing arts before and was pretty good at it, so I’ve considered Psychology. But recently, I’ve been enjoying other fields that are less focused on working with people who are in personal distress.
EllaEm - I didn’t read the article you linked (please note the content of this post ;-) but I appreciate your advocacy. The professionals I’ve worked with around this were clear that I am not Dyslexic, and I don’t want to be labeled as such. My cognition pattern has similarities, but unlike Dyslexics, my Verbal score is very high. I’m a good writer, and I don’t consider any of this a negative (re: “on the plus side...”). It’s only in how I take in information through reading that is very slow for me. By Perceptual Reasoning, I am specifically indicating visual-spatial nonverbal fluid reasoning as the modality of cognitive processing. That’s a summary of the standard definition of Perceptual Reasoning, which is the form of cognition I’ve been addressing in this post and which is linked above if you’d like to learn more about it. This discovery has been very helpful for me! I’m glad you could get something from it too.
posted by hot_tea at 1:39 PM on March 9, 2020
EllaEm - I didn’t read the article you linked (please note the content of this post ;-) but I appreciate your advocacy. The professionals I’ve worked with around this were clear that I am not Dyslexic, and I don’t want to be labeled as such. My cognition pattern has similarities, but unlike Dyslexics, my Verbal score is very high. I’m a good writer, and I don’t consider any of this a negative (re: “on the plus side...”). It’s only in how I take in information through reading that is very slow for me. By Perceptual Reasoning, I am specifically indicating visual-spatial nonverbal fluid reasoning as the modality of cognitive processing. That’s a summary of the standard definition of Perceptual Reasoning, which is the form of cognition I’ve been addressing in this post and which is linked above if you’d like to learn more about it. This discovery has been very helpful for me! I’m glad you could get something from it too.
posted by hot_tea at 1:39 PM on March 9, 2020
The immediate answer that comes to my mind is mechanical engineering.
I am confused as to how architecture is considered "low paying." It may not be as much as other professions, but if this is accurate, or even if the numbers are more regularly 20 grand below this "median figure," that still is more than a lot of people make, and so this remark seems to me highly dismissive of what could otherwise be the career the OP is looking for.
posted by Crystal Fox at 4:37 PM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
I am confused as to how architecture is considered "low paying." It may not be as much as other professions, but if this is accurate, or even if the numbers are more regularly 20 grand below this "median figure," that still is more than a lot of people make, and so this remark seems to me highly dismissive of what could otherwise be the career the OP is looking for.
posted by Crystal Fox at 4:37 PM on March 9, 2020 [2 favorites]
Video editing or something in the GIS field are what springs to mind for me.
posted by matildaben at 5:17 PM on March 9, 2020
posted by matildaben at 5:17 PM on March 9, 2020
Graphic design?
posted by moons in june at 12:30 AM on March 10, 2020
posted by moons in june at 12:30 AM on March 10, 2020
A couple comments on programming: programmers don't read much. If given a business problem, the first thing they do might be to break it out in a diagram to identify the inputs, outputs, etc.
A programmer does want to be able to find a small fact in a big book (or the computer equivalent) using table of contents or indexes.
posted by SemiSalt at 1:11 PM on March 10, 2020
A programmer does want to be able to find a small fact in a big book (or the computer equivalent) using table of contents or indexes.
posted by SemiSalt at 1:11 PM on March 10, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
If there is any IT type job or engineering field you fit, I'd suggest perusing those fields simply because of higher pay for equivalent stress and long hours.
posted by mightshould at 4:10 AM on March 9, 2020