4 ms·
I think I have aphantasia to some degree and have experienced what the OP is mentioning. Also handwriting is a good aid for me to remember things, particularly
by tartoran 6y ago
I think I have aphantasia to some degree and have experienced what the OP is mentioning. Also handwriting is a good aid for me to remember things, particularly if it is written by hand. I don't need to review the notes but the act of putting it down sticks a bit better. I will also have to add that my memory is better at concepts and abstract things but not so good at details.
- caddemon 6y agoThe handwriting thing makes sense, since I don't think aphantasia necessarily affects motor memory. Drawing/writing by hand could actually be more important for people with aphantasia in that case, since it could provide a motor memory that directly corresponds to something visual. Also I think at the core of the "visualizing things in different parts of space" memory trick is just making good associations. If you're much better at verbal/internal monologue type of thinking you could still do something pretty similar, by mapping the things to memorize into a story. Granted certain things are easier to map to a visual space than to language, but that's true in the other direction too. Anecdotally it takes a lot of effort for me to visualize things and I barely do it naturally, but I seem to have a much stronger internal monologue and a better memory for things people say than most of my friends. I wouldn't be surprised if poor visualizing abilities during development could strengthen verbal reasoning a bit like how blind people have other senses heightened. I really hope research into aphantasia will become more commonplace, but a lot of it is speculation for now unfortunately.