Aphantasia, can you see mental images?

franciscanpunk

1-2

I cant see any pictures but i can remember things ive seen before and use them if that makes sense. If u asked me to close my eyes n picture my dad i couldnt like imagine him it is just pure black but i can think of the last time i looked at photo of him n what he looks like or think back to a recent time i saw him, try remember what he was doing\wearing n try to remember in more detail and build it.

my mind has a good recall facility but little to creative ability.

Markus Antonius

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775880#Comment_117775880

A clockwork orange was the only film that improved what the book put in my head

Sleeper12

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778675#Comment_117778675

I can't picture anyone. Wife, kids, etc. If I look at my wife and then close my eyes I can't summon an image of her. I remember her on our wedding day 30 years ago. Not an image of any kind. It's data that I'm recalling. Colour of flowers in her hair, shape of dress etc

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

The Simpsons did an episode on this, Homer and Lisa in the deprivation tanks. I'm definitely more Homer than Lisa.

Although I'm actually shocked the other way, it would appear plenty of people have photographic memories. Which I always thought was a rare phenomenon not the norm.

Gregor Samsa

5. I see colour mental pictures

I see vivid, full colour mental pictures. If someone askes me where something is, I literally pull up a picture of the room or place in my mind, see where the item is, and describe it to them. It's not quite Hannibal Lecter drawing the Florence skyline, but it's usually a pretty accurate picture, and I hardly ever lose things because I have a visual mental catalogue of where everything is (obviously unless someone else moves it unbeknown to me). I've a very good sense of direction, and can retrace my steps based on visual waypoints. I can "see" a map in my mind of the journey I've taken, even if I've never seen an actual map of it.

I can also play music and sounds vividly in my mind.

I have an absolutely awful memory for names. Appallingly, embarrassingly bad. If someone tells me their name, no matter how hard I try, I can't remember it. Even a few minutes after, I can play the conversation back in my mind, and the words leading up to them saying their name will be vividly clear, but then there'll be a gap when they say their actual name, and then I'll be able to vividly remember the words after it. I have to use mnemonics to remember names. It helps a bit if I already know someone else with the same name. When I'm trying to remember the new person's name, I'll associate them with the other person I already know, and then when recalling their name, I have to go through the process of recalling that association. I'm pretty bad at remembering numbers and dates too. I only know 3 phone numbers (including my own, and the now disconnected numbers of the house I grew up in), and I can't remember my wedding date. Even my children's birthdates, I have to think hard about.

But if I see a name written down, I can recall it by pulling up the picture and reading it in my mind.

I can design things in my mind too. I studied fine art painting and worked as a web designer for years, and I can fully visualise anything I want to create before I've begun making it. I can look at an empty room and accurately imagine what it will look like furnished or painted, or I can move exiting furniture or fittings around in my mind to rearrange a room. I also have a very active and vivid inner monologue. I can even change its accent.

mct1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778239#Comment_117778239

Wow, I find that even scarier.😱

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779466#Comment_117779466

That's a photographic memory. That is definitely not the norm. I'd assume you have a MENSA level IQ.

Gregor Samsa

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779546#Comment_117779546

I've never actually told anyone this before, but when I was 3 years old, I had to attend the CRC in Dublin for some physiotherapy on my leg. Seemingly a psychologist there asked my mother if they could do an IQ test - I'm not sure why. I still have the letter with the results. It says my IQ was in "the very superior range of the Stanford-Binet scale". They didn't give a number. I know I'm relatively smart, because I'm good at learning and problem solving, but I definitely don't feel like I'm "very superior", and I've met a lot of people much smarter than me.

seamus

5. I see colour mental pictures

Annoys me that the poll is randomly distributed rather than going from "Nothing at all" to "Vivid, photographic memory". :D

I'd probably be in the "I see colour mental pictures" group. I can formulate images in my mind, when I'm working through a problem, I can visualise it in moving parts and work through it. I can bring up memories; static and "moving" and see the people in them and the colours. But I can't really "examine" any of it. It's more like looking at a photo or a video that someone is holding 2 feet away. I can see all the major elements, I can put myself in the moment. But the only fine details I can see are the general colour scheme, and the looks on people's faces.

No way in hell I can tell you what someone was wearing, or what items were on the shelf behind them. But that doesn't surprise me. I can literally walk away from a conversation with someone and I can't tell you what they were wearing. These are details I just do not see, even in real-time, unless they really stand out.

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779572#Comment_117779572

Probably just relative to the company you keep. If you're extremely intellectual then you'll be drawn to like minded people. So maybe in that circle you don't see yourself as exceptional.

Go to your local boozer for a premier league match one Sunday and see how you feel there 😀

seamus

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779533#Comment_117779533

+1

I can recall music in very fine detail. After a good few listens of course, but I can replay the entire song, every instrument, every nuance and squeak, inside my head nearly as loud as if it was playing from a speaker beside me.

If I was suddenly not able to do this, would feel like a huge loss, like losing sight or hearing.

Donald Trump

OP, have you tried loads of different drugs to see if they help? What about the oul' LSD. The professor who invented it fell off his bike the first time he used it due to whatever he was seeing in his head.

donspeekinglesh

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779683#Comment_117779683

Help? Why would I want to see/hear things in my head? That sounds awful.

I'm fully aphantasic - I have no internal senses at all. No visual/audio/taste/tactile (I'm told people can remember what hugs feel like!?😲).

I have an internal monologue, but's a single monotone voice. I've never heard a song in my head or another voice (I find those memes where you're expected to read in Morgan Freeman's voice, or whoever, bizarre). Even for my favourite songs I'd struggle to remember more than a line or two of the lyrics, and rarely remember the tune.

My memories are a list of facts, nothing more.

Donald Trump

You might just be, to use the professional clinical term, a mentaller? 😋

(obviously said tongue-in-cheek)

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779737#Comment_117779737

I voted no mental images because I definitely don't see a photo of something. I can list out everything in the image in my head, which outlines the form of the horse and the background etc. But it's not a stock photo.

Id like a stock photo, that would be pretty cool. A song can take me back to moments in my life. Give me goose bumbs and bring emotions to the forefront. But it would never transport me back to the exaxt moment like that film 'The butterfly effect'. Again though I think that would be an awesome ability to have.

Gregor Samsa

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775983#Comment_117775983

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777747#Comment_117777747

Yeah I do this. When I worked as a web developer, I could spend a day actively trying to figure out a complex coding problem, with no success. I'd go home, put it out of my mind, go to bed and wake up first thing the next morning with the solution vividly in my mind, as if someone else worked on it when I was asleep and just handed it to me. This used to happen a lot. Now, I'm sure there were plenty of times when the "solution" didn't actually work (plenty of times it did, though), but even in those situations, my brain was obviously working on it in the background.

Also, switching off my brain is something I'm pretty good at, although it's a skill I had to learn and develop. I had awful trouble sleeping as a kid, and I used to tell my mother that it was because "my brain wouldn't stop talking to me". But over the past 10 years or so, I've developed a skill where I can go to bed and completely switch off my mind - not matter what stressful things are going on in my life. Ironically, it takes a conscious effort, but I can just let thoughts drift into my mind, and then they drift out, I don't allow myself to dwell on them, I just watch them float past, and I drop off to sleep easily.

donspeekinglesh

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779755#Comment_117779755

It's possible. My mother didn't have me tested.

I also might have SDAM (Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory), in that I have no emotional connection to my memories. They're just things that happened (that I have a list of facts about). I feel as connected to them as if they were as story someone else told me.

Oh, and I don't get the idea of things like sights/sounds/smells triggering memories. That's just weird to me.

3. I see vivid mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779546#Comment_117779546

I'm quite like Gregor, in that if I deliberately place something somewhere I can see it perfectly in my mind. So if I had to ask someone to retrieve it for me, I can see exactly where it is with total clarity and send the person perfect directions. But I have to have consciously placed it there. Most things, like keys etc. I just sorta dispose of in a random spot without even thinking about it and then I'm never sure where I left them.

Another thing is, in college for example, when I was doing exams, if I got a bit stuck on something, I could bring to memory my pages of notes and see my own words in my mind to perfection. Exactly which page I wrote them on and see the exact sentence I needed. But again this only worked if I very consciously studied those notes over and over. If I just read through them once , I wouldn't be able to do that.

Or if I'm reading a book and I think something like 'hang on wasn't this character supposed to work in a factory', I can find the page that was written on easily because I can just picture how far into the book it was and more importantly whether it was on a left or right page and how far down the page.

I've never had my IQ tested but I think I'm being very kind to myself by saying I'm average intelligence at best.

I close my eyes and I see black...

Sometimes I can see blurry outlines, but if I focus on them, they move around a lot then they disappear...

I can remember what things look like though, as if it's constructed elsewhere in my head but not being projected visually when I have my eyes closed...

I always found if I read a good book, it would seep into my dreams and visuals would be produced there, sort of a pseudo lucid dream

I feel like I'm missing out not being able to close my eyes and see things clearly, obviously my brain power is being utilised elsewhere (probably in the frustration of how boards has become since the "upgrade")...

cool topic though, never though people had different perceptions...

I also read the title as "Aphganistan" and was coming in to ridicule over the spelling

forgot to add... I did psychedelics a hand full of times, which would produce a type of synathasia effect if I closed my eyes, but that's probably as dramatic as it got... my off the wall visuals are definitely during dreams

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779790#Comment_117779790

I think maybe this all that's happening with reference to the average person. Some people's memories are compiled as an image and others are a list.

As you say you'd need to have studied/revised the info and if that was the case your memory pulled up an image of the info, mine would just pull up a list of the info.

MENSA level photographic memory is something different. It's the ability to look at things once or read something once and be able to recall it completely in the future.

sporina

3. I see vivid mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778924#Comment_117778924

gee thats mad - I am so sorry to hear that - that must be tough...

tis mad - till I read this thread I assumed I was the same as everyone else.. could see mental images..

@Gregor Samsa I'm a little like you.. for exams I could learn stuff off at the drop of a hat just by mentally photographing the notes (although I would have to understand the context)

.. and I have an unreal memory for anything visual - esp people's faces eg: was on a train yrs ago - sitting with 3 others... 2 yrs later one of them (a guy) came into the shop i was working in - asked him if he was on x train going to x place x date.. he nearly freaked out - asked if I was a cop in disguise.. lol.. I said, no I just rem you.. this has happened with other people too - have been accused of being a witch lol..

I am terrible with names though.. embarrassingly so! seriously. eg: 2 girls from school - besties - knew their names but could never rem which name belonged to each one.. also, if I meet someone who looks like someone I met already, I will call them by that name as oppose to their own... eg: girl at work - name is Aoife, but she looks like Laura to me so in my head her name is Laura not Aoife.... she found it funny for the 1st 3 mths.. but afterwards was like "ffs my name is Aoife not Laura"! If a name is written down for me I will rem it...

Prob also why I am bad at picking up languages... if its written down I can pronounce it - otherwise its a struggle (unless i mentally spell it in my head so I can see it)

I have constant inner dialogue - wish it would shut up sometimes.. and v a serious ear for music - hear something I can play it on piano easily..

Good sense of direction too

Good with dates though..

Can rem specific years eg: I will rem what year a song was No 1 in the charts cos my memory can link it to what ever was going on in my life at that time eg: Tiffany's I think your alone now was out in the late 80's cos I rem I got new roller skates in 3rd class and was listening to it while skating etc..

Smells bring me right back to times too..

Another way in which my mental image memory helps is that i can rem stuff in general from years ago.. eg: I rem a poem my bro loved in school (he was 7 I was 5) cos I can picture him on the couch reading it - we spoke about this and he has no memory of it... said he never heard of the poem lol

I just thought everyone was the same - expect on the name thing... there must be a medical condition with regards to this?

Potatoeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779770#Comment_117779770

I do this for planning and problems. I’ll have different projects and planning when I need to think of resolutions and consequences. I think of them and put them in the back of my mind pull them up a few days later and know the answers. This helps with coding and planning. Also works for working out people’s motivations for doing things. People’s language can give away more than they realise when taken as a whole.

I also some times have trouble switching off at night but use what they thought fighter pilots to do during WW2. Clear your mind for a minute, relax your muscles, and take a few deep breath’s. You’re asleep in a few minutes.

the_pen_turner

1. I see no mental pictures

I feel like I'm on a tour of yer mans college in x men. It's like walking around and seeing the superheroes show off their superpowers.

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117779956#Comment_117779956

I believe the clinical term for the condition would be ' Genius'.

the_pen_turner

1. I see no mental pictures

Are there links between this and dyslexia and oand autism etc.

Feisar

3. I see vivid mental pictures

How does this work out creativity wise? I automatically assumed if one can't picture something in their min's eye they wouldn't be creative.

Plus since this is AH, what does someone with aphantasia do for a **** when there is not material to hand?

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117780036#Comment_117780036

Well a couple of posters have described cognitive similarities with rain man, so I would think definitely border line autism.

donspeekinglesh

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117780044#Comment_117780044

The former head of Pixar has Aphantasia, as does Blake Ross - a creator of the Firefox browser. There are plenty of artists and other creative people with Aphantasia. I'm not one of them though.

PokeHerKing

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117780044#Comment_117780044

I think people are mixing up no physical pictures equates to having no memory at all.

It's also very subjective, mayybe what some people consider a stock photo I consider a series of details that I piece together to form a memory.

If somebody literally closes their eyes and sees a HD photo of an apple when they think of an apple then that's different to me. But I've seen an apple so I can imagine it in my head I just don't see a photo of it.

Sleeper12

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117780036#Comment_117780036

No known link at the moment. Having said that I'm autistic & dyslexic