6 Ways of Seeing, by Dan Roam.

We see a number of things before we start to think. Actually, it all happens in a split second, and you don't even notice this.

We can see more than what we really “look at”. There are the “low-level” cognitive processes which take place when we receive numerous inputs and react to them without going through all over the complex brain. We filter out things and focus on something worth looking at because the “low-level” mental process enables us to act even before we think.

In "the Back of the Napkin", Dan Roam explained the pre-cognitive visual attributes as the six ways of seeing, in which he argued that people distinguished “who”, “what”, “how many/much”, “where” (positions of objects), and “when” (changing of positions) almost intuitively in a given scene, and defined “how” things influence each other and “why” in a later thought.

Understanding the potential of how our brains work in visual thinking paves a way to make a good use of them.