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Out of curiosity, how's your visual imaginative abilities? The aphantasia test: imagine a person rolling a ball across the table. What color was the person's

Out of curiosity, how's your visual imaginative abilities? The aphantasia test: imagine a person rolling a ball across the table. What color was the person's hair? If it didn't occur to you, you may have aphantasia. (This ability, I assume, is key in reading books. It's like an ongoing movie in your head if you can do it. I can't.)

trentgreene 5y ago
That’s not a good test for aphantasia, and will way over diagnose. Try googling test for aphantasia for much better examples
- jaynetics 5y ago
  I agree. I have a vivid imagination (visual and otherwise) and like reading. When I imagined this scene, it was rich in detail (colors, textures, lighting etc.), but the person's hair wasn't a part of it, because I had "zoomed in" too close to the action.
GordonS 5y ago
This test seems imperfect. I imagined what you said, but my thought was focused on the ball, and so the person was "unfocused", or "not as detailed" - I'm not even sure what gender they were. Oh, and I'm colour blind (which is relatively common), so probably don't think of colours in the same way as others.
bigyikes 5y ago
When I was younger, I would always skip over those kinds of long, windy paragraphs full of visual descriptions. It’s like noise to me. I do have a sort of movie playing in my head, but it’s not really a visual or auditory experience. It’s more like a running list of bullet points; a stream of facts. Visual descriptions are chock full of these facts, but they’re all usually inconsequential to the plot so I tune them out. I find aphantasia very strange. I don’t lack a mind’s eye, but I do lack the ability to use it while conscious. My dreams are extremely visual and movie-like, but my conscious experience isn’t really visual at all. It wasn’t until recently that I learned “day dreams” are named that way because for most people they resemble dreams, but mine don’t at all.
schwartzworld 5y ago
Sounds like pop science. I did as you asked and didn't imagine the person's hair, but I can imagine things visually and have been an avid reader since childhood.

trentgreene 5y ago

That’s not a good test for aphantasia, and will way over diagnose. Try googling test for aphantasia for much better examples

jaynetics 5y ago
I agree. I have a vivid imagination (visual and otherwise) and like reading. When I imagined this scene, it was rich in detail (colors, textures, lighting etc.), but the person's hair wasn't a part of it, because I had "zoomed in" too close to the action.

GordonS 5y ago

This test seems imperfect. I imagined what you said, but my thought was focused on the ball, and so the person was "unfocused", or "not as detailed" - I'm not even sure what gender they were. Oh, and I'm colour blind (which is relatively common), so probably don't think of colours in the same way as others.

bigyikes 5y ago

When I was younger, I would always skip over those kinds of long, windy paragraphs full of visual descriptions. It’s like noise to me. I do have a sort of movie playing in my head, but it’s not really a visual or auditory experience. It’s more like a running list of bullet points; a stream of facts. Visual descriptions are chock full of these facts, but they’re all usually inconsequential to the plot so I tune them out. I find aphantasia very strange. I don’t lack a mind’s eye, but I do lack the ability to use it while conscious. My dreams are extremely visual and movie-like, but my conscious experience isn’t really visual at all. It wasn’t until recently that I learned “day dreams” are named that way because for most people they resemble dreams, but mine don’t at all.

schwartzworld 5y ago

Sounds like pop science. I did as you asked and didn't imagine the person's hair, but I can imagine things visually and have been an avid reader since childhood.