[processing] another attempt at explanation

[wispfox]

This is actually a part of a post that I posted to alt.poly recently, which I decided I should post here, too. It's attempting to explain a frequent separation I have between input, processing, and actually having the information contained in that initial input. Slightly modified from the original post so it makes sense on its own.

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The problem I have when needing to do/decide things based on new input is not that I don't have enough information. It's that I have not yet processed the information that I have. Different, although I'm not sure if I can explain it to anyone who doesn't have the problem I do. Most people (I think) don't have that extra step.

Anyone who has spoken to me in person has probably noticed that anything not part of an automatic thing ('hi', 'how are you', and similar bits of social lubrication won't cause me pause, unless I'm expecting that someone might really want interaction, or if I'm not expecting anyone to talk to me. I also don't tend to hear the first few words of anything someone says to me if I don't know they are talking to me. And my spoken I/O is _really_ bad when I first wake up) will often have a bit of a pause while I process it, before I can reply. That is just processing the input (but not necessarily just verbal input), and is not even including the time it'll take for formulating a reply (some people, at least, have apparently been able to tell which stage I'm in). This is true even for fairly normal conversations/interactions. (An exception is word play-type things - some of which I'm terrible at, but some of which don't require much processing on my part)

For conversations or experiences which have lots of levels of information coming in (verbal, body language, empathic, possibly more), I am not going to be able to process everything I'm getting and still be able to participate in the conversation/experience. This gets more true the more unexpected things happen or are said (usually, the more interesting the conversation. ;). So, in order to participate, I pick a single train of input (usually solely verbal, with small amounts of body language/tone if I have the cycles to spare), interpret that, and leave the rest for later processing.

For me, I/O is very expensive, in terms of processing power. (Why yes, I _do_ spend an awful lot of time around computers...) Especially if it's spoken, not written. Worse yet if there is a high amount of emotional content (sufficient amounts of emotional content will shut down every other form of I/O I have, especially if it's being thrown at me, rather than contained).

I may have the information somewhere, but until it's been processed, I can't access it, and may as well not have it.

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Something else of note would be the fact that if there are a lot of sources of input not necessarily relating to the conversation, this will make it even more difficult for me, and perhaps make me unable to get the important bits of conversational input at all. This is why very crowded and/or noisy locations are difficult for me.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that there _are_ times, although rare, that I can manage to process most of a conversation on the fly. This tends to be the result of a combination of me getting enough rest, not having a lot of distractions, and not having very much that is unexpected or new in the conversation. This may be obvious from the initial explanation, but I'm not sure.

Comments

[sunstealer.livejournal.com]

A lot of what you say sounds really familiar. I've always thought of social/conversational interactions in terms of energy flow, like any other dynamic system,
and often find myself having to measure out the rate of expenditure rather carefully. I'll spend a good long while thinking about what someone has said, or the way they said it, before responding, especially if it's something more than casually important.
I'd love to sit down sometime and talk about it with you sometime, sounds like we process info in similar ways.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

I'd love to sit down sometime and talk about it with you sometime

Me, too! Not that I have any idea when. Want to try to make time for that?