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There seems confusion caused here and in those reddit comments, mostly from two senses of the word "see". The reddit instructions say > Close your eyes and ima

There seems confusion caused here and in those reddit comments, mostly from two senses of the word "see". The reddit instructions say > Close your eyes and imagine a red star. Which image do you see? I see 2, but most people see 5 or 6. It seems some people are (a) reporting what they actually see with their eyes closed, i.e. mostly nothing, a 1. Others are (b) imagining a star and reporting what that looks like in their mind's eye. I didn't think that aphantasia meant the (a)-type literal seeing, so I just read up on it again, and the descriptions seem to refer to (b)-type imagining/visualization, like imagining a giraffe then being able to describe what you see in your imagination. It doesn't mean you can actually see it, with open or closed eyes. It seems this test convinced a lot of people they have aphantasia, as it seems most people are a 1. And I suspect most of those who say 6 are talking about what they imagine, not what they physically see. I'm a 1 in sense (a), but in sense (b) a 6, well, I can imagine any kind of red star, like most people, I believe.

semperdark 5y ago
Some of the comments report training themselves to produce closed-eye visuals, which I could believe with enough practice. I don't think that has anything to do with aphantasia, though, and I'm in the same box you are.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
That was my initial suspicion as well, but I've addressed this distinction with a few people, and come to believe there's a little confusion. I am 2-3 on (a) and (b). My wife is 6 on (a) and (b). She reports that she does actually see stuff as if it was there. Conversely, I only barely see the things, and at the same time, I can barely "imagine" them in the sense of (b). E.g. my process of "imagining a star and reporting what that looks like" consists of keeping the words, the tokens "red star", repeated by my inner voice on a loop, and then exploring the graph of associations. It's a non-visual process. I don't "see" it, but I can tell you all about it because I know how stars look like and what properties they have.

semperdark 5y ago

Some of the comments report training themselves to produce closed-eye visuals, which I could believe with enough practice. I don't think that has anything to do with aphantasia, though, and I'm in the same box you are.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

That was my initial suspicion as well, but I've addressed this distinction with a few people, and come to believe there's a little confusion. I am 2-3 on (a) and (b). My wife is 6 on (a) and (b). She reports that she does actually see stuff as if it was there. Conversely, I only barely see the things, and at the same time, I can barely "imagine" them in the sense of (b). E.g. my process of "imagining a star and reporting what that looks like" consists of keeping the words, the tokens "red star", repeated by my inner voice on a loop, and then exploring the graph of associations. It's a non-visual process. I don't "see" it, but I can tell you all about it because I know how stars look like and what properties they have.