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A few years ago, my wife and I figured out she has aphantasia. Suddenly, it made sense why she has trouble with navigating, why I have to draw things for her s
by KMag 3y ago
A few years ago, my wife and I figured out she has aphantasia. Suddenly, it made sense why she has trouble with navigating, why I have to draw things for her so often rather than just explaining the shapes of the various parts and how they fit together, and also why she finds reading most books so boring.
When she reads a book, any description of how things look just goes in one ear and out the other. When walking around a city, she can't overlay a mental map over what she's seeing.
On the other hand, I've always had good 3D mental visualization, likely part of why I was drawn to Mechanical Engineering.
- EGreg 3y ago"On the other hand, I've always have good 3D mental visualization" It is also a difference between the sexes https://news.emory.edu/stories/2019/04/esc_gender_gap_spatial_reasoning/campus.html https://news.emory.edu/stories/2019/04/esc_gender_gap_spatia... although some studies claim women are just as good but use different strategies that take longer: https://neurosciencenews.com/spatial-cognition-sexes-15576/ https://neurosciencenews.com/spatial-cognition-sexes-15576/ possibly related: https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/intelligent-people-slower-solve-hard-problems/ https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/intelligent-people-slower-so...
- pcl 3y agoThese aren’t necessarily related. I have aphantasia (am aphantastic?) but have a great sense of direction, and think very spatially. Just not with pictures or lines in a “mind’s eye”, as people call it.
- godshatter 3y agoI like using the word "aphant" to describe myself in this context.
- vidarh 3y agoI have aphantasia, but significantly above average spatial reasoning. I'm not convinced those things are straightforwardly connected.
- ravishi 3y agoSame. My brother doesn't have aphantasia, but he has some kind of "spatial dyslexia" as we call it. Not diagnosed, he just has really hard time thinking about spatial stuff, drawing and writing (related to the form of his "typeface", not to spelling).