Comment by Alexander Cole (alexander-cole) on When do you visualize (or not) while doing math? · 2022-12-16T00:00:02.183Z · LW · GW

I visualize the faces on dice to do simple addition, i never memorized simple things like 7+4, i have to pick the highest number as a starting point, then i see a dice with the four dots for the 4, and i count up from 7 until I've counted all the dots. For larger numbers, i just brake it down into parts, so for 56+34, i add 50 and 30, just the first digit uses the visualization and the i carry a 0 to the second digit, then i hold that in my memory while i visualize the 6 +4 with the mental dice faces and counting, then i add that to the 80 that's been hanging out in memory. Complicated and not efficient but the only way I can do it. I don't know how I was the "gifted" class in school.