A

30 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind

positive that the letter „q‟ will almost always be followed by the letter „u‟
(ask Scrabble players for the exceptions). Principles of grammar are used
to organize words into longer chains, called sentences: “The fox jumped
over the dog,” is grammatically correct, while “Jumped dog the fox the
over” is not.A Sentences themselves are grouped into paragraphs, chapters,
and books. At each of these levels, we find that certain sequences of letters
or words go together quite often, and that other sequences never occur. In
other words, we find that language contains order; it is not total chaos but
contains patterns which can be discovered.

Analytical Thinking Associative Thinking

Left Hemisphere processing Right Hemisphere processing

Time-oriented Space-oriented

Strings elements together into

sequences

Links elements together to form

objects

Adjusts where sequences are

applied

Adjusts the label of each object

Sensitive to general patterns and

to order

Sensitive to details and to the
exception
I suggest that a road map provides an example of associative thinking.
Neurology tells us that the ability to work with maps depends upon a
specific part of the right hemisphere called the parietal lobe. Notice that a
road map is a piece of paper on which the spatial locations of different
towns and cities are shown as dots of various sizes. These dots are
connected with lines which indicate the roads that go between the cities.
Each dot on the paper is also labeled. In the case of a road map, this
label usually tells the name of the town or city. Maps can contain differing
amounts of detail. A simple road map will show only the main cities and
the freeways, while a detailed map will also indicate the side roads and the
small villages.
Finally, it is easy to find what is out of place by comparing one map
with another. This can be illustrated by the familiar puzzle in which two
pictures of the same scene are shown and one is asked to find the
differences between the two sketches. The easiest way to solve this
problem is to place one picture on top of the other and then hold them both
up to the light. The differences pop out, especially if the two sketches are
drawn in different colors. It appears that associative thinking uses exactly
this type of process when comparing mental objects or pictures. For the
associative person, unusual situations and exceptions are easy to notice—
they are continually „popping out.‟
The two diagonals in the diagram are labeled confidence and emotion
(these words appear at the bottom of the diagram). These are two different

A In some languages, word scrambling is permitted. This is because words

themselves are modified to indicate their function within a sentence.