Aphantasia ???? never knew I had it

I was listening to this yesterday morning. I didn't realize people couldn't!!!!

34 out of 40. I scored highly on natural vision and reasonably on friends face etc. Although if I had to envision my children or grandchildren it would have been very high as well

I didn't realise people couldn't see things in their "mind's eye" either but I have often wondered what those who have been blind from birth "see" when they dream.

40 out of 40 !

Reading many of the comments people confuse memory wit visualisation. I can remember quite accurately the house I lived in as a teenager, and could draw a detailed plan of it, but that is from memory, I cannot see a picture of it in my mind at all. This does explain why I have difficulty describing faces as I cannot visualise the image, I can only remember specific features, and I would have to have seen the person for a while for the memory to set in my brain.
I have never hough that I was any different, until now, Mrs P can visualise well and our daughter even better, she cannot comprehend not being able to see a mental image. (I did a couple of tests and scored zilch.)

Very interesting and new to me. Pompa, can you dream? That must be difficult
without visualising.

pomp!!!

However, I am very "visual".

I'm hopeless at most word association stuff, I remember doing a test once and the researcher said "stone" and I replied with "frog", because my reaction to the word was to "see" an overhanging stone, with rain dripping off it and a frog sheltering beneath it

Dreaming, I think I dream fairly vividly, but as I can never remember dreams it is somewhat difficult to be sure, but I know I dream about specific people, so I must be visualising them during a dream. (As I can remember it was Linda Lucardi last night )

Apparently it is common with people with aphantasia to dream vividly.

Also, aphantasia causes the brain and fingers to ignore each other when typing !!!

18
I knew I would be bad. I could do the friend/relative bit relatively well, but the sun and the rest? No.

34

When my OH & I viewed our current home, which was a neglected wreck, he refused point blank to even consider it as an option. I could visualise exactly what potential it had and how it could look. I won Even now, he comments on the fact that he never would have believed the transformation. He just couldn't visualise in the way that I could. I never realised that some people can' visualise at all. I scored 40 on the test.

I wonder if this is a trait that inspires artists? They can visualise fantasy etc.

26. I did know someone who was 'face blind' and once read of an artist who said that he could draw peoples faces from memory but not his wifes. A friend who worked in marketing told me that there are people who say 'I see what you mean' and others who say 'I hear what you're saying' [I guess they would be the low scorers].My ex husband can remember everything quite clearly, even down to sitting in his pram one day. I often wonder if I do actually remember things or whether I can because I have photos of places, people events etc.With my children they do change hairstyles/hair colour etc so I do struggle with having a vivid image of them.

33

38

9!!!

I think I found it difficult to say I could see things 'vividly' even though I probably can. I can't really compare what I see and how I see it with other people .

I think this thread and the article it references are mistaking what memory and imagination are. It assumes that memory is like a video recorder, but as Steven Pinker points out the brain retains what is salient and discards the rest.

This came to mind a while ago when a comment from someone set me thinking about whether I dream in black and white or colour. I realised that it's neither, dreams, memories and imagination are a sequence of salient points. If I recall a view in the Lake District the colour of the sky might be relevant, but if I recall crashing the car the sky colour may be irrelevant.

I find it much easier to imagine physical and technical systems than I do people and social ones. Other people appear to be the opposite, which is one reason why I think I have Aspergers.

37. I had a bit of a problem with the clouds and thunderstorm!
People were very vivid.

This should probably be on a separate thread, but it's got me wondering if people can hear things in their mind, too? I've just been trying and I can - family/friends' voices, vehicles, drills, hammers, flowing water, thunder, all sorts of sounds.

32 - yet I am absolutely useless at recognising faces (and therefore visualising them in any way) unless I know someone really well. As for being able to describe a face, even one that I recognise well, forget it.

Even now, after living where I do for about 17 years, there are very few of the neighbours who I would recognise unless they were standing outside their houses. If I were to meet them in the supermarket, I wouldn't know them from Adam.

Visualising a rainbow or a sunrise isn't a problem, so there are two very different things going on (or not!) in my brain. Actually, like Crun, I do sometimes wonder about Aspergers!

Both memory and imagination are different from visualisation which is what aphantasia references. I can remember what an object, person scene etc looks like, I can also imagine objects, scenes as I put together memories to create the object or scene in my mind, but I cannot summon up any vision of that memory. Faces are different, I cannot imagine a face.

When I paint an imaginary scene, I mentally draw the scene in mid air, placing sky, mid ground and foreground etc as individual elements, but I cannot visualise the scene I imagine until I re-construct it on paper.

I have never found the inability to visualise a problem, if you have never had it, you don't miss it.