Neuro-Linguistic Programming

Primary system

Although people use all the representational systems available to them, they tend to favor one in particular, 'naturally' thinking in pictures, sounds or feelings. Some individuals find it easy to 'visualize', to see what happened in a memory or construct an image of what could transpire in the future. Others are great at recalling the tune of a piece of music or making up conversations in their mind. And some people are very aware of their feelings. We, of course, use all of the senses to some extent on a daily basis.

The representational system someone uses most of the time is known as their primary, or preferred system. It's normally highly developed, and capable of more discrimination than the other systems. As we grow up we develop an unconscious preference for a particular system and normally by our teens we have a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic disposition. Socialization can play an important role. If as children we spend several years learning to play a musical instrument, the auditory modality may come to the fore. Ballet or martial arts will help strengthen the kinaesthetic sense. And painting will do the same for the visual modality. Playing computer games is likely to develop both visual sophistication and kinaesthetic dexterity.

People often have occupations or hobbies that relate to their primary systems: photographers need strong visual awareness, recording engineers need auditory subtlety, and aerobics teachers need excellent co-ordination. For every system that's developed there are inevitably others that are not. if your visual modality is well developed at the expense of the other two, you may not take to the guitar or gymnastics with ease. But most of us are reasonably balanced, and have access to all five systems when we need them - looking at scenery, listening to the radio and receiving a massage using the appropriate representational system.