I just learned I am aphantasiac in all of my senses. I am 71 years old and have degrees in classical piano performance I have taught piano for many years But primarily perform only with the music scores as it’s very difficult for me to memorize large works I have developed the ability to improvise music but am not able to exactly replicate any song I improvise The research you are doing is very helpful and I finally realize why the majority of my students have the ability to memorize music quickly Blessings
I think that I am as mind-blind as a person can get. I have been trying to understand exactly how I do remember images in my head. The discussion on how some people make word lists, then tie it to a spacial map was dead on. Asked to draw those pictures I would have done as bad or worse than most. Anything I drew in would be located pretty much exactly, but say the bed that I drew may only bear passing resemblance to the bed drawn. I remember a bed in a certain spot, but there won't be much detail there. Very well explained. Thank you.
I just realised a few days ago I experience Aphantasia, I image these test will have a lot of individual difference however the average paints a picture. The use of text in pictures and I have done this as well, is not because memories are stored in words at all. If I was given the same test, I would list words for this reason :- I have an intuition of a picture that I can’t see, I’m assuming this is the same for all people, first they know, then they fill in the image or create it in their mind, where as I just know without seeing an image. I’m aware these intuitions flash through my head rapidly, and are gone in less than a second, I’m aware of someone asked me to visualise for example a bear fishing, I have the intuition or “image” of a bear standing at a water fall catching salmon, I don’t see anything though but I know my mind just referenced that and super imposed that idea. I also have a flash of a bear sitting in a deck chair with a fishing rod and straw hat also, I have a flash of a bear pawing the water. None of these I “see” or visualise and it happens in a split second. I can then use that intuition and focus on imagining instead the bear in the water fall with a straw hat, my mind clearly does some creative stuff and another intuition flashes, I don’t see it, I just know what it was as if I had seen it before. If I was asked to draw this, I can only recall the intuition, the idea or concept that I know what the picture would look like if it was drawn but can’t see it. So on item remembering from a photo like in this experiment, I remember the idea of the picture, what makes it different, what’s unique. Objects I focus on, but if it’s bland then I’ll have that flash of intuition where I assume visual people have it, but then their mind generates the image that they can then examine, I can’t see it, therefor I would say ok there was a bed here, a mirror here, a tv here. I’m not storing words as memory, I’m using words to try and decipher the memory. The memory is stored as the intuition that I just know is correct but can’t go back and examine. I would have to keep repeating thinking about it and essentially refreshing the idea to gather information. This could correlate to why words are used in the picture in combination with being embarrassed that I couldn’t draw a chair that resembles a chair. Also when generating creative ideas the same applies to when I think about the bear. If I think of my car and rain drops hitting it, I’m aware of dozens of intuitions flooding through from slow motion films showing rain drops splashing on a window driving fast, to what a raindrop looks like next to an insect on a leaf, balloons popping with water on the slow mo guys TH-cam etc. Then I’m aware that after my mind has narrowed it down to the category (I’m not aware of the filtering) - that I’m piecing together what logically makes sense and then I get the idea/intuition or what I assume is a picture for others of what the car would look like with rain hitting the windscreen. I would repeat this process if someone asked me what colour the car was, because none of that actually included the car apart from the initial intuition of my car. I assume others would do the same visually, except they would realise in their mind earlier they didn’t include colour because it would be inconsistent if they didn’t. I would view those two as separate, then a merge them together and take the creative rain drops hitting the windscreen, and my car and then a new intuition or picture is born that If I could draw I would be able to. Recalling from memory alone however is how I described. Not storing in words at all, it’s just words that I’m using more to try and navigate the intuition of the image I know, but can’t see. As for the spacial awareness, think about if you were playing a sport, or navigating through any space you were not looking at, your doing the same process as I am, your not visualising what’s behind you while someone is running at you and your walking backwards, your just working off the same intuitions I am, and they are accurate. So again I remember the picture, the layout and roughly where the objects are placed etc because I “know” what the picture is that would be in my head, I just can’t see it to examine it. So if my mind didn’t think the colour of a vase was valuable, it will get pushed out of the intuition because it wasn’t a relevant idea. Recreate this test with pictures of emotional value, like a straving kid with tears on their face, then ask people how many tears was there. How many men in the background were holding weapons, what weapons were they? How old was the driver of a car crash, what ethnicity were they? Things like that, and I imagine recall about all value driven memories would be similar but the less valuable details not so much. If I had to guess also, I imagine that visual memory deterioration over time is less for Aphantasia people. Such as eye witness testimony about a person face. (Because alterations are not happening to the initial intuition unless you focus on them whereas someone who’s actually creating the image might actually make minor changes to it because they consciously see it) If we all recall memory with the same “start up process” of having the intuition and knowing through a mental comparison or filter we are not aware of :- then that image is then drawn, it explains why there is a spectrum of Aphantasia, from nothing like me, to hyper real and blurry or darker inbetween. Our mind recalls the image the same, knowing for sure out of the billions of memories and images that it pulled the right one, so we know what the image is before anyone “see’s” it. Then visual people don’t need to do mental gymnastics to examine it, they just see it I suppose, where as I would have to use different functions to decode it even if I already know what the picture is to start with.
This is really interesting. It confused people when I said I identify (undiagnosed) as aphant, and they were like "but you're an artist!". I have a great imagination, and learn designs and have muscle memory, maybe even to compensate for lack of visualization. I really identify with the like, Ikea database log of "these things go here.... go look up the details later".
Yeah, I've got a BFA in drawing and only in the last couple years realized that I probably have aphantasia (also undiagnosed). I sort of think of drawing as my version of visualization. All of the stuff is in my head, but I can't see it until it's on a page.
This was thorough and helpful for understanding this phenomenon, and how I might be experiencing it. It's strange to have your experience of the world upended. Very disorienting, but also curious.
21:13 There used to be a tv quiz show and people had to remember what had passed on a conveyor belt ... there was always a teddy bear! :-) being serious though I found this quite fascinating and in accord with my own life's experiences. I am glad that my inability at Art and Music is nothing at all to do with it, I am just naturally crap at them. I seem to have a disconnection between what is in mind and what I can express, it's like the measurement problem in Quantum Mechanics .... as soon as I attempt to express a recollection it collapses and just junk comes out. Telling jokes is very difficult because I loose my thread half way through telling and even though I hear music perfectly in my head as soon as I utter a note it all goes clunk. I am pretty darn good at dreaming though, the vibrant panorama's that I see and the untold number of new faces and experiences and ..this is what gets me ..Jokes that people tell .... I mean how can you hear a new joke in your dreams when it must have originated there in the first place? In a dream you can see and feel the very essence of a person not seen for many years .. but can you taste food? I can't. But then dreams are not really representative. For example, I know where my car is in Real Life. :-)
Interesting! I especially understood the participant who said they memorized a word list of objects and put the words in the drawing, not hat I can't draw but if I can't see it, then it's just an idea of something that took up space.
This really thought through - one of the best works ive seen so far about this topic. and thank you for not only sharing the results but also for putting up free research tools online.
I love that this is becoming a more commonly acknowledged topic. I brought this subect up to a therapist friend earlier this week and they were completely perplexed by it (but also intrigued, and asked for resources on the topic)
Wow, as an aphantasic, hearing what to me are plainly "hallucinations" being described as"memories" never stops being bizarre. Even what's depicted here as "very hazy memory" still seems like a hallucination that would terrify me if I had it whenever I thought about or remembered something.
I love this research. I feel like a whole new science, the science of thought is being born right in front of our eyes. Previously we only had psychological science around behavior effects, but now we are realizing that the strategy of thinking itself is vastly different and it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed for almost all of main stream human history.
We so appreciate your comments and wonder if you'd be interested in putting some of these ideas into writing? It would be great to have more perspectives from the opposite side of the spectrum who "sees" what we see. Not literally but you get it ;). If so, drop us a line at hello@aphantasia.com!
I had adult onset aphantasia. I’ve seen both sides. I realize, now that I’ve come back to having vivid mental imagery, that memory is a form of perception along with immediate sense experience. Perception is along a spectrum between past experience (memory, which often is mentally vivid) and current experience and the distribution between these two determine your level of mental imagery. Another issue is the level of abstraction that your brain is willing to take on when attempting a mental image. For most people when I say the word ‘carrot’, they have some kind of abstract, reference carrot which is very simple and clear. For many aphantasiacs, there are an infinite number of representations that the carrot can take on (a small carrot far away slowly vertically rotating to the left, a large carrot quickly rotating horizontally to the right etc. etc.) Even the simplest idea can take on an infinite number of forms, that the brain shuts down to avoid overload. Now that I’m back to using mental imagery I force myself to define what I see in my head. I force experience to be limited and discrete rather than infinite and continuous.
The idea that people have such different ways of processing the world is fascinating. As for me, I have a pretty good spatial memory, and rely on that quite a bit when I draw. I feel like I can "see" something in my head, but its more a wireframe of the objects, and I then remember a color and paint them that color, its all very vague though, more a ghost of an image. As I have a hard time really recalling actual images, I reconstruct the scene in my head, based off of shapes and sizes. I can seems to picture small features, better than large scenes, so that helps with some details.
Great study, love how you were able to quantify drawlings, very well done. Just learned I am mind-blind in the last month. Questions I still have on being aphantasiac. 1) I am a mensa member, and have always grasps concepts quickly, but details are harder (dates and places in history for example). So is the ablity to grasps concepts quickly related to not having visual imagery? 2) About spaitial memory, when I was a student I could remember where on a page a fact was, even though I didn't remember the details about the fact. Is this normal? it seemed odd to other students as I recall. 3) I used to be a computer programmer and I love doing spreadsheets, I can break down a process into very small individual steps. I would have a program in my head, the whole thing, then I would write it quickly so I didn't lose the flow. More thought of a spatial positioning, but no visual. 4) I wounder who would do better on memorizing a set of objects on a tray, visualizers or conceptualizers. I remember a book where an orphane was trained to be able to memorize all the gem's on a tray, so he could act as a spy. ? 5) Is there a co-orlation on Myers- Briggs personality types and being mind-blind - I am an ENTJ which is fairly rare. I appreciate all the work people are doing in this area in gives me better lanquage to describe and understand who I am. Thank you.
Great questions Donna! To address your questions: 1) The ability to grasp concepts quickly isn't necessarily tied to a lack of visual imagery. At least there is no concrete evidence to point to here yet. However, some aphants describe thinking in a more abstract or conceptual manner, which might aid in understanding concepts faster. You might enjoy this article: aphantasia.com/article/strategies/ball-on-the-table/ 2) Spatial memory, like remembering where on a page a fact was, is not uncommon. It's a different type of memory from visual imagery and can be strong in some individuals, including aphants. There is some research showing aphants despite having no visual imagery have intact spatial memory. Seems to involve a different area of the brain. You can find more discussions, research and articles exploring this theme here: aphantasia.com/topic/spatial-imagery/ 3) Your approach to programming and spreadsheets sounds like a form of spatial or structural thinking, which doesn't necessarily require visual imagery. It's about understanding relationships and structures. Very cool. Thanks for sharing! 4) It would be interesting to see a study comparing visualizers and conceptualizers in memorizing objects on a tray. Both might have unique strategies that work for them. 5) As of now, there isn't concrete evidence linking Myers-Briggs personality types to aphantasia. However, it's an intriguing and ongoing area of research. You can participate in a preliminary study on imagery extremes and personality types here: aphantasia.com/study/perception-personality/
Is the aphantasia network going to study the sub section of aphantasics that are sad and stressed. Opposed to people who are thriving and don't feel disabled.
I have aphantasia and I don’t feel sad or stressed And I do not feel and disability I think I and less stressed than people that have a constant monologue going on
I am what I am. I can feel happy and I can feel sad. I can't imagine how something I know nothing about can hamper that. We are all different and share many different skills to different degrees, that we survive as a species shows that there isn't just one way to perceive.
Ahh this is so cool. I am aphantasiac and I've wondered about the spatial memory thing, because yeah that part seems to work fine and it made me doubt myself sometimes. Really validating that I could predict your results in that part of the study based on my own experience! 😄
I did some tests on Human Benchmark, I'm not sure if the website is legit, since I did not see names and qualifications, but it said my visual memory was in the 2nd percentile. My reaction time was in the 4th percentile. I don't remember for sure My sequential memory and aim were in the 13th percentile. My number memory was in the 34th percentile. And, my typing was in the 49th percentile. I remember things by facts and emotions, I don't see anything in my mind. I probably have partial severely deficient autobiographical memory. I have Alexithymia and moderated empathy, and about 55 percent emotional intelligence or something. My IQ is about 124, I see well, and my ability to tell between color hues is perfect. I did a color vision acuity test and got a perfect score. I did a lot of autism screening tests. Prob level 1 autism. I don't act like descriptions online, only when I was small. They are also probably male/they descriptions. Since most research has been done on males, which I use loosely, because some of them are probably nonbinary or trans or something else. Also, I think most research was done on white boys, not completely sure though. I guess it's all sorts of different boys/theys now. So, the descriptions online probably describe white males the best, and not really other people. (I made this comment before watching the video, I just heard the presenter say something about visual memory ) I have multisensory aphantasia.
After several tries, my clearest image of a Chef drunk in the kitchen was a screengrab from the movie Ratatouille. I couldn't picture a "backsplash" at all.
I've drawn haphazardly a couple times, only to see coherent pictures afterward. With both oil paints and digital Paint(s), I've daubed around. I think my conscious aphantic mind draws on my subconscious mind to show me what I should say - is that the basis of abstract thought; I seem to be able to (imagine?) seeing very vague silhouettes that move to convey conceptual structure. Does anyone relate?
I only recently became aware of aphantasia and suspect I may have the "condition" and am left handed. I was particularly interested tn the fact that one of the twins was left handed - was this the aphantasic twin? Is there any research into whether aphantasics are more commonly left handed? Thank you
17:07 pretty stark result in the top left, aphantasic drawer went from Picasso to Kindergarten when using memory retrieval. Non aphantasics are pretty much the same memory vs perception.
It's a deep hole in the ground surrounded by a circular wall with a roof on top. It has a handle and a bucket ... I don't know what colour it is though a red roof comes to mind? 🙂
Unrelated to this video, but I wanted to put something out there to the relevant community. Apparently scientist have been using trained stable diffusion ai to interpret mri brain imaging to translate recorded brain images into a visual depiction of what the subject is being shown. I'd be curious to know and think it might be enlightening to see if the ai is able to interpret the visual stimulus being processed by am aphant brain vs a visualizers brain.
I just learned I am aphantasiac in all of my senses. I am 71 years old and have degrees in classical piano performance
I have taught piano for many years
But primarily perform only with the music scores as it’s very difficult for me to memorize large works
I have developed the ability to improvise music but am not able to exactly replicate any song I improvise
The research you are doing is very helpful and I finally realize why the majority of my students have the ability to memorize music quickly
Blessings
I think that I am as mind-blind as a person can get. I have been trying to understand exactly how I do remember images in my head. The discussion on how some people make word lists, then tie it to a spacial map was dead on. Asked to draw those pictures I would have done as bad or worse than most. Anything I drew in would be located pretty much exactly, but say the bed that I drew may only bear passing resemblance to the bed drawn. I remember a bed in a certain spot, but there won't be much detail there. Very well explained. Thank you.
I just realised a few days ago I experience Aphantasia, I image these test will have a lot of individual difference however the average paints a picture. The use of text in pictures and I have done this as well, is not because memories are stored in words at all.
If I was given the same test, I would list words for this reason :-
I have an intuition of a picture that I can’t see, I’m assuming this is the same for all people, first they know, then they fill in the image or create it in their mind, where as I just know without seeing an image. I’m aware these intuitions flash through my head rapidly, and are gone in less than a second, I’m aware of someone asked me to visualise for example a bear fishing, I have the intuition or “image” of a bear standing at a water fall catching salmon, I don’t see anything though but I know my mind just referenced that and super imposed that idea. I also have a flash of a bear sitting in a deck chair with a fishing rod and straw hat also, I have a flash of a bear pawing the water. None of these I “see” or visualise and it happens in a split second.
I can then use that intuition and focus on imagining instead the bear in the water fall with a straw hat, my mind clearly does some creative stuff and another intuition flashes, I don’t see it, I just know what it was as if I had seen it before.
If I was asked to draw this, I can only recall the intuition, the idea or concept that I know what the picture would look like if it was drawn but can’t see it.
So on item remembering from a photo like in this experiment, I remember the idea of the picture, what makes it different, what’s unique. Objects I focus on, but if it’s bland then I’ll have that flash of intuition where I assume visual people have it, but then their mind generates the image that they can then examine, I can’t see it, therefor I would say ok there was a bed here, a mirror here, a tv here.
I’m not storing words as memory, I’m using words to try and decipher the memory. The memory is stored as the intuition that I just know is correct but can’t go back and examine. I would have to keep repeating thinking about it and essentially refreshing the idea to gather information.
This could correlate to why words are used in the picture in combination with being embarrassed that I couldn’t draw a chair that resembles a chair.
Also when generating creative ideas the same applies to when I think about the bear. If I think of my car and rain drops hitting it, I’m aware of dozens of intuitions flooding through from slow motion films showing rain drops splashing on a window driving fast, to what a raindrop looks like next to an insect on a leaf, balloons popping with water on the slow mo guys TH-cam etc.
Then I’m aware that after my mind has narrowed it down to the category (I’m not aware of the filtering) - that I’m piecing together what logically makes sense and then I get the idea/intuition or what I assume is a picture for others of what the car would look like with rain hitting the windscreen.
I would repeat this process if someone asked me what colour the car was, because none of that actually included the car apart from the initial intuition of my car.
I assume others would do the same visually, except they would realise in their mind earlier they didn’t include colour because it would be inconsistent if they didn’t. I would view those two as separate, then a merge them together and take the creative rain drops hitting the windscreen, and my car and then a new intuition or picture is born that If I could draw I would be able to.
Recalling from memory alone however is how I described. Not storing in words at all, it’s just words that I’m using more to try and navigate the intuition of the image I know, but can’t see.
As for the spacial awareness, think about if you were playing a sport, or navigating through any space you were not looking at, your doing the same process as I am, your not visualising what’s behind you while someone is running at you and your walking backwards, your just working off the same intuitions I am, and they are accurate.
So again I remember the picture, the layout and roughly where the objects are placed etc because I “know” what the picture is that would be in my head, I just can’t see it to examine it. So if my mind didn’t think the colour of a vase was valuable, it will get pushed out of the intuition because it wasn’t a relevant idea.
Recreate this test with pictures of emotional value, like a straving kid with tears on their face, then ask people how many tears was there.
How many men in the background were holding weapons, what weapons were they?
How old was the driver of a car crash, what ethnicity were they?
Things like that, and I imagine recall about all value driven memories would be similar but the less valuable details not so much.
If I had to guess also, I imagine that visual memory deterioration over time is less for Aphantasia people. Such as eye witness testimony about a person face. (Because alterations are not happening to the initial intuition unless you focus on them whereas someone who’s actually creating the image might actually make minor changes to it because they consciously see it)
If we all recall memory with the same “start up process” of having the intuition and knowing through a mental comparison or filter we are not aware of :- then that image is then drawn, it explains why there is a spectrum of Aphantasia, from nothing like me, to hyper real and blurry or darker inbetween.
Our mind recalls the image the same, knowing for sure out of the billions of memories and images that it pulled the right one, so we know what the image is before anyone “see’s” it. Then visual people don’t need to do mental gymnastics to examine it, they just see it I suppose, where as I would have to use different functions to decode it even if I already know what the picture is to start with.
This is really interesting. It confused people when I said I identify (undiagnosed) as aphant, and they were like "but you're an artist!". I have a great imagination, and learn designs and have muscle memory, maybe even to compensate for lack of visualization. I really identify with the like, Ikea database log of "these things go here.... go look up the details later".
Yeah, I've got a BFA in drawing and only in the last couple years realized that I probably have aphantasia (also undiagnosed). I sort of think of drawing as my version of visualization. All of the stuff is in my head, but I can't see it until it's on a page.
This was thorough and helpful for understanding this phenomenon, and how I might be experiencing it. It's strange to have your experience of the world upended. Very disorienting, but also curious.
21:13 There used to be a tv quiz show and people had to remember what had passed on a conveyor belt ... there was always a teddy bear! :-) being serious though I found this quite fascinating and in accord with my own life's experiences. I am glad that my inability at Art and Music is nothing at all to do with it, I am just naturally crap at them. I seem to have a disconnection between what is in mind and what I can express, it's like the measurement problem in Quantum Mechanics .... as soon as I attempt to express a recollection it collapses and just junk comes out. Telling jokes is very difficult because I loose my thread half way through telling and even though I hear music perfectly in my head as soon as I utter a note it all goes clunk. I am pretty darn good at dreaming though, the vibrant panorama's that I see and the untold number of new faces and experiences and ..this is what gets me ..Jokes that people tell .... I mean how can you hear a new joke in your dreams when it must have originated there in the first place? In a dream you can see and feel the very essence of a person not seen for many years .. but can you taste food? I can't. But then dreams are not really representative. For example, I know where my car is in Real Life. :-)
Interesting! I especially understood the participant who said they memorized a word list of objects and put the words in the drawing, not hat I can't draw but if I can't see it, then it's just an idea of something that took up space.
This really thought through - one of the best works ive seen so far about this topic.
and thank you for not only sharing the results but also for putting up free research tools online.
I love that this is becoming a more commonly acknowledged topic.
I brought this subect up to a therapist friend earlier this week and they were completely perplexed by it (but also intrigued, and asked for resources on the topic)
Same
Wow, as an aphantasic, hearing what to me are plainly "hallucinations" being described as"memories" never stops being bizarre. Even what's depicted here as "very hazy memory" still seems like a hallucination that would terrify me if I had it whenever I thought about or remembered something.
Really well presented and super fascinating!!!!
I love this research. I feel like a whole new science, the science of thought is being born right in front of our eyes. Previously we only had psychological science around behavior effects, but now we are realizing that the strategy of thinking itself is vastly different and it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed for almost all of main stream human history.
We so appreciate your comments and wonder if you'd be interested in putting some of these ideas into writing? It would be great to have more perspectives from the opposite side of the spectrum who "sees" what we see. Not literally but you get it ;). If so, drop us a line at hello@aphantasia.com!
I had adult onset aphantasia. I’ve seen both sides. I realize, now that I’ve come back to having vivid mental imagery, that memory is a form of perception along with immediate sense experience. Perception is along a spectrum between past experience (memory, which often is mentally vivid) and current experience and the distribution between these two determine your level of mental imagery.
Another issue is the level of abstraction that your brain is willing to take on when attempting a mental image. For most people when I say the word ‘carrot’, they have some kind of abstract, reference carrot which is very simple and clear. For many aphantasiacs, there are an infinite number of representations that the carrot can take on (a small carrot far away slowly vertically rotating to the left, a large carrot quickly rotating horizontally to the right etc. etc.) Even the simplest idea can take on an infinite number of forms, that the brain shuts down to avoid overload.
Now that I’m back to using mental imagery I force myself to define what I see in my head. I force experience to be limited and discrete rather than infinite and continuous.
This is really good research and well presented, well done. Confirmed a lot of my suspicions. And made me more curious about some of my other theses.
The idea that people have such different ways of processing the world is fascinating.
As for me, I have a pretty good spatial memory, and rely on that quite a bit when I draw. I feel like I can "see" something in my head, but its more a wireframe of the objects, and I then remember a color and paint them that color, its all very vague though, more a ghost of an image. As I have a hard time really recalling actual images, I reconstruct the scene in my head, based off of shapes and sizes. I can seems to picture small features, better than large scenes, so that helps with some details.
We find it utterly fascinating too! Thanks for sharing :)
Being asked to draw anything from memory would cause me great distress 😢 i can only really manage a caricature like approximation of anything
Great study, love how you were able to quantify drawlings, very well done. Just learned I am mind-blind in the last month. Questions I still have on being aphantasiac.
1) I am a mensa member, and have always grasps concepts quickly, but details are harder (dates and places in history for example). So is the ablity to grasps concepts quickly related to not having visual imagery?
2) About spaitial memory, when I was a student I could remember where on a page a fact was, even though I didn't remember the details about the fact. Is this normal? it seemed odd to other students as I recall.
3) I used to be a computer programmer and I love doing spreadsheets, I can break down a process into very small individual steps. I would have a program in my head, the whole thing, then I would write it quickly so I didn't lose the flow. More thought of a spatial positioning, but no visual.
4) I wounder who would do better on memorizing a set of objects on a tray, visualizers or conceptualizers. I remember a book where an orphane was trained to be able to memorize all the gem's on a tray, so he could act as a spy. ?
5) Is there a co-orlation on Myers- Briggs personality types and being mind-blind - I am an ENTJ which is fairly rare.
I appreciate all the work people are doing in this area in gives me better lanquage to describe and understand who I am.
Thank you.
Great questions Donna!
To address your questions:
1) The ability to grasp concepts quickly isn't necessarily tied to a lack of visual imagery. At least there is no concrete evidence to point to here yet. However, some aphants describe thinking in a more abstract or conceptual manner, which might aid in understanding concepts faster.
You might enjoy this article: aphantasia.com/article/strategies/ball-on-the-table/
2) Spatial memory, like remembering where on a page a fact was, is not uncommon. It's a different type of memory from visual imagery and can be strong in some individuals, including aphants. There is some research showing aphants despite having no visual imagery have intact spatial memory. Seems to involve a different area of the brain.
You can find more discussions, research and articles exploring this theme here: aphantasia.com/topic/spatial-imagery/
3) Your approach to programming and spreadsheets sounds like a form of spatial or structural thinking, which doesn't necessarily require visual imagery. It's about understanding relationships and structures. Very cool. Thanks for sharing!
4) It would be interesting to see a study comparing visualizers and conceptualizers in memorizing objects on a tray. Both might have unique strategies that work for them.
5) As of now, there isn't concrete evidence linking Myers-Briggs personality types to aphantasia. However, it's an intriguing and ongoing area of research.
You can participate in a preliminary study on imagery extremes and personality types here: aphantasia.com/study/perception-personality/
Is the aphantasia network going to study the sub section of aphantasics that are sad and stressed. Opposed to people who are thriving and don't feel disabled.
I have aphantasia and I don’t feel sad or stressed
And I do not feel and disability
I think I and less stressed than people that have a constant monologue going on
I am what I am. I can feel happy and I can feel sad. I can't imagine how something I know nothing about can hamper that. We are all different and share many different skills to different degrees, that we survive as a species shows that there isn't just one way to perceive.
Ahh this is so cool. I am aphantasiac and I've wondered about the spatial memory thing, because yeah that part seems to work fine and it made me doubt myself sometimes. Really validating that I could predict your results in that part of the study based on my own experience! 😄
Really good, thank you for posting this.
I did some tests on Human Benchmark, I'm not sure if the website is legit, since I did not see names and qualifications, but it said my visual memory was in the 2nd percentile.
My reaction time was in the 4th percentile. I don't remember for sure
My sequential memory and aim were in the 13th percentile.
My number memory was in the 34th percentile.
And, my typing was in the 49th percentile.
I remember things by facts and emotions, I don't see anything in my mind. I probably have partial severely deficient autobiographical memory.
I have Alexithymia and moderated empathy, and about 55 percent emotional intelligence or something.
My IQ is about 124, I see well, and my ability to tell between color hues is perfect. I did a color vision acuity test and got a perfect score.
I did a lot of autism screening tests. Prob level 1 autism. I don't act like descriptions online, only when I was small. They are also probably male/they descriptions. Since most research has been done on males, which I use loosely, because some of them are probably nonbinary or trans or something else. Also, I think most research was done on white boys, not completely sure though. I guess it's all sorts of different boys/theys now.
So, the descriptions online probably describe white males the best, and not really other people.
(I made this comment before watching the video, I just heard the presenter say something about visual memory )
I have multisensory aphantasia.
Thanks for sharing your presentation.
After several tries, my clearest image of a Chef drunk in the kitchen was a screengrab from the movie Ratatouille. I couldn't picture a "backsplash" at all.
Good job with the study.
Very interesting talk, thanks Dr. Bainbridge
I've drawn haphazardly a couple times, only to see coherent pictures afterward. With both oil paints and digital Paint(s), I've daubed around. I think my conscious aphantic mind draws on my subconscious mind to show me what I should say - is that the basis of abstract thought; I seem to be able to (imagine?) seeing very vague silhouettes that move to convey conceptual structure. Does anyone relate?
I only recently became aware of aphantasia and suspect I may have the "condition" and am left handed. I was particularly interested tn the fact that one of the twins was left handed - was this the aphantasic twin? Is there any research into whether aphantasics are more commonly left handed? Thank you
I feel the details as I talk about them if that makes sense.
I have aphantasia and my older sister has hyperphantasia.
26:25 you should really mention which of the twins had which handedness. Aphantasic or non aphantasic. Overall good video and interesting research.
25:10 interested what these brain regions are called and their significance in general brain research.😊
17:07 pretty stark result in the top left, aphantasic drawer went from Picasso to Kindergarten when using memory retrieval.
Non aphantasics are pretty much the same memory vs perception.
I can't draw well.
It's a deep hole in the ground surrounded by a circular wall with a roof on top. It has a handle and a bucket ... I don't know what colour it is though a red roof comes to mind? 🙂
Unrelated to this video, but I wanted to put something out there to the relevant community. Apparently scientist have been using trained stable diffusion ai to interpret mri brain imaging to translate recorded brain images into a visual depiction of what the subject is being shown. I'd be curious to know and think it might be enlightening to see if the ai is able to interpret the visual stimulus being processed by am aphant brain vs a visualizers brain.