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Something I don't see people mention much is a sense of dynamic resolution to mental imagery. I took the quiz posted here and it felt completely meaningless to
by extr 7y ago
Something I don't see people mention much is a sense of dynamic resolution to mental imagery. I took the quiz posted here and it felt completely meaningless to me. If you want me to visualize a scene, there aren't really details until I give it details. If I'm told to imagine a wooden door with no other instructions it's like I'm seeing the door in a passing glance or out of the corner of my eye. If you ask me if it's "clear and vivid", I can make it that way to any arbitrary degree needed. Looking closer and seeing that the wood is old and somewhat warped, feel the cracks in the wood, look closer and see the brass on the handle has discolored slightly from use, etc etc. But it feels pointless to do. Certainly it's at least as detailed as a real life image, if I think about it, but it's definitely not like, crowding out my actual vision with it's sheer lucidity, which some of the answers seem to suggest.
- phaedrus 7y agoI'm a highly visual person, I expect I'd score 5/5 on each of the 16 questions. In the absence of specific hints my brain will happily auto-generate arbitrary details. My mental imagery does, in fact, "crowd out my actual vision with it's sheer lucidity" as you so well put it. If I need to focus on what I'm actually seeing I sometimes have to exert mental effort to push visualization aside, in much the same way you might push down negative thoughts to calm anxiety before e.g. public speaking. Conversely I find it very difficult to think about things which I can't visualize (but I'm good at coming up imagery to represent things). Most of my internal "dialog" is without words.
- djakjxnanjak 7y agoI’m the same way, details in my visualization only appear where my attention is directed.
- zachsnow 7y agoIt seems to me that is how my eyesight works, too, so it’s unsurprising that’s how my mind’s “eyesight” works as well!