Aphantasia - Do you see visions?

[Mal12345]

Aphantasia: A life without mental images - BBC News

Most people can readily conjure images inside their head - known as their mind's eye.
But this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualise mental images.

 

[Mal12345]

I'm in about the 25% range of the population for mental imagery. No wonder I never learned how to draw.

 

[Hawthorne]

Okay, this is really cool. Seriously cool.

Because I can't imagine not being able to visualize things. When I'm not focused on communicating, I think almost exclusively in images and sounds as opposed to actual, intelligible words so this is so outside of what I can comprehend.

I want to know the connection between this and how people read. They briefly touched on it with the illustrator and hyperphantasia but I'm curious how many people actually visualize what's happening in stories or if they just...apply words directly to the forehead or something.

 

[miss fortune]

recalling images in detail is one of my weird talents... I used to disturb professors by quoting textbooks exactly on closed book tests and then citing the page number

so no... I don't fall into that category!

 

[Mal12345]

Okay, this is really cool. Seriously cool.

Because I can't imagine not being able to visualize things.

I wonder what that disorder is called?

 

[á´…eparted]

Hyperphantisa - 35/40 on that test. That isn't surprising, internal visualization had always been extremely easy for me. I actually had no idea that it wasn't common until I got to college, and I had a hard time understanding how someone *couldn't* do this.

I read the article a few days ago. It is really interesting. I hope some of this knowledge goes into helping with new educational tools into accomidating this.

 

[miss fortune]

on another note though... I can't recall faces

things are good though!

 

[BadOctopus]

on another note though... I can't recall faces

I read this as "I can't recall feces." Sorry.

Anyway, I think in a weird combination of words and images. That's why I've always been good at spelling. I can actually see the words spelled out in my head as I'm thinking them. (I'm not sure what font they are. I think Baskerville Old Face.)

 

[fetus]

32/40. Normal range.

It makes me sad even thinking about not being able to see mental images. I have always been an enormous daydreamer. Surprised I didn't get higher on the test--it's probably because some of the questions were more about recalling than creating. I always tell people that staring at a blank wall for three hours doesn't seem like too much torture (as long as I have a comfortable chair and a jug of water). When I'm bored, I can decorate the room around me with Christmas ornaments!

I remember one time I was drifting off to sleep, I closed my eyes and imagined myself flipped on the other side of the bed facing in the opposite direction. When I opened my eyes again, I was surprised to realize that I was in the same position.

 

[Ghost]

Anyway, I think in a weird combination of words and images. That's why I've always been good at spelling. I can actually see the words spelled out in my head as I'm thinking them. (I'm not sure what font they are. I think Baskerville Old Face.)

Me, too. (Although I think mine is all caps Arial Black, and usually it's in a vivid color.) I thought everyone did that. I asked my dad about whether he sees the word when he has to spell it, and he said he doesn't. Another time I asked him if he thinks in pictures. He said he doesn't do that, either. He says he thinks in concepts. It weirds me out because I can't imagine what he imagines or if he even imagines much. He's like an alien. I live in a Bruce Coville book.

I find it easier to imagine a whole new thing than to visualize something familiar. Not sure why that is. I can remember the way someone carries himself better than I can remember his face.

 

[Galena]

32/40, normal.

Mental imagery accompanies all of my thoughts, but I noticed during the test - and what brought my score down - was that the images are very brief. They vanish the instant they've done their job and feel like they've been compressed into a silent and more intuitive kind of data. Meanwhile, my attention returns to what I see in front of me, but better informed on what to do with it next.

 

[prplchknz]

You scored 35 out of 40

the walking one i couldn't do because i don't pay attention to that stuff, so i would not remember. and the sun clearing because do they mean like after the sun rise where it's a yellow circle or like it's still sunrise but mostly its the yellow circle, the final transition phase? does that happen? I should watch the sun rise more i get up at 6 for school anyways and it's still pretty dark.

perhaps why i don't have good reading comprehension is because i don't really thinking in written language but rather images and sounds.

 

[Olm the Water King]

This score suggests that your visual imagery is more vivid than usual. Scores at the upper end of this range are suggestive of ‘hyperphantasia’: exceptionally strong powers of visualisation. About 23% of people score in this range, the highest of our five bands...

You scored 37 out of 40

 

[Poki]

I have this disorder, can I get on disability so I can get some of my tax money back?

 

[Olm the Water King]

I'm in about the 25% range of the population for mental imagery. No wonder I never learned how to draw.

I can't draw either, but for different reasons. I'm really clumsy lol

 

[Poki]

Me, too. (Although I think mine is all caps Arial Black, and usually it's in a vivid color.) I thought everyone did that. I asked my dad about whether he sees the word when he has to spell it, and he said he doesn't. Another time I asked him if he thinks in pictures. He said he doesn't do that, either. He says he thinks in concepts. It weirds me out because I can't imagine what he imagines or if he even imagines much. He's like an alien. I live in a Bruce Coville book.

I find it easier to imagine a whole new thing than to visualize something familiar. Not sure why that is. I can remember the way someone carries himself better than I can remember his face.

That's how I am. It's very hard for me to pull up images. They cut in and out as i think I lose the image. Both can't exist at the same time, I flip over to conceptual thoughts as opposed to images

 

[Dreamer]

What I find most interesting about this topic, at least how it relates to me, is that I feel it fantastically coincides with my personality type. I actually scored merely average on that quick test with a 20/40, and to be honest, I wasn't expecting all that high of a number even though I consider myself highly creative and artistic. I've always considered my brand of artistry to relate heavily, ok maybe completely, on emotion. So when painting for example, I always prefer to paint abstract with colors and shapes relative of the emotions I'm feeling at the time.

Relating to this test, I know I can visualize fairly well, but that memory or image that is conjured up, isn't solely a photographic image of something, but also includes how that subject relates to me on an emotional level. When the test asked me to visualize a sunset for example, I was not only imagining the clouds and sun peering through, but the warmth of the sun on my skin with a slight breeze through my hair. I could feel the happiness and sensation of joy I get from seeing a beautiful sunset.

...Shoot, I forget where I was going with...ahh, just read my first sentence. (How does someone literally get mentally sidetracked and start to daydream while typing?!)

Ok! So, back to relating this test to my ENFP personality. Whenever I experience something, I am always keenly aware of all the sensations I am picking up and how the experience is making me feel, and on a deeper level, relating to how it stacks up to a deeply held goal in life in experiencing it to the fullest and enjoying as much of it as I can. So being able to mentally conjure up exact lines and contours of an image is not all I remember of a scene, but merely a part of the equation. I usually envision a general shape of an image with scattered outlines that don't connect but as a whole, make up the image, and then all the emotion, color, smells, and all that other good stuff thrown in.

Sorry that this posting may seem like I'm rambling without any aim, I am seriously going in and out of focus and just inundated with a million other thoughts right now.