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Like many things in life, there’s a spectrum for this. Some people are aphantasic, or completely lacking in the ability to produce mental imagery. Tell them to

by nocsi 3y ago

Like many things in life, there’s a spectrum for this. Some people are aphantasic, or completely lacking in the ability to produce mental imagery. Tell them to visualize an apple, and they can’t. Others have hyperphantasia and can visualize the apple from a gray shade to full vibrancy. I suspect hyperphantasia was a bigger deal in the ole hunter gatherer times and being able to mentally simulate would be important to survival.

mikub 3y ago
It's not just seeing apples, it's basicly like a movie "behind" your eyes sometimes, like movement and eveything. When I'm doing some "boring" stuff like cleaning the house I often have whole conversations in my head where I really see the people and the whole scene around it, like sitting in a cafe and talk to some friends or something like that. Now that I write this down it must sound really strange to someone who doesn't have this, I mean it even sounds strange to me now. :)
kzrdude 3y ago
Visualisation and imagining the future are still pretty important I think, we just don't realize it. I think it dictates a bit how you work and what roles you are suited for(!). Let's say, are you better at working things out in practice or are you good at planning things out and executing following a plan?
_fs 3y ago
Hmm, I can barely visualize an apple. Like, I see the shape on a 2d plane in pieces. I noticed when I read your comment and tried to visualize the apple, instead, in my mind, I get an inner monologue telling me what an apple is. The color, the shape, the size. But I don't really get a visual. Now, ask me to think about a song, and I can create the entire auditory experience of the song. Various instruments, in time. I can manipulate the songs key, slow it down, etc. But there are no visuals accompanying this. I have honestly never really even thought about this. Can people really visualize faces and complex items in life like color and resolution?
- jareklupinski 3y ago
  > Can people really visualize faces and complex items in life like color and resolution? for my organic chemistry class, it was almost a requirement, so that you could describe the interactions two molecules would have based on their physical properties, and determine the end result curious, if you were asked not just to simply visualize something, but determine an outcome based on physical properties of objects, how does that process play out in your mind? for example, if I were shown a square-shaped hole, and without being shown a cube, I was asked if a typical cube would fit through that hole based on shape and not size, in my mind i would picture one face of a cube and try to match it up with the shape i can see to determine 'yes it fits'
  - mathstuf 3y ago
    Not the GP, but I'm also aphantasic. To me, the square hole question is more like "cubes have square faces, therefore yes". Seems to me like touch typing (knowing shapes) vs. hunt-and-peck typing (search for shape, align). For the "what happens if" question, it's similar: "based on facts from experience, what happens next?". I lack the requisite knowledge base for ochem specifically, but in software, I'm usually able to come up with "have you considered input X" when reading code that just isn't handled well. I don't have any visual reference when thinking about such things; I just "feel" that there's an unhandled edge case. There's nothing concrete that visually represents input values, but I guess a marble maze could work for folks though.

by nocsi 3y ago

mikub 3y ago

It's not just seeing apples, it's basicly like a movie "behind" your eyes sometimes, like movement and eveything. When I'm doing some "boring" stuff like cleaning the house I often have whole conversations in my head where I really see the people and the whole scene around it, like sitting in a cafe and talk to some friends or something like that. Now that I write this down it must sound really strange to someone who doesn't have this, I mean it even sounds strange to me now. :)

kzrdude 3y ago

Visualisation and imagining the future are still pretty important I think, we just don't realize it. I think it dictates a bit how you work and what roles you are suited for(!). Let's say, are you better at working things out in practice or are you good at planning things out and executing following a plan?

_fs 3y ago

Hmm, I can barely visualize an apple. Like, I see the shape on a 2d plane in pieces. I noticed when I read your comment and tried to visualize the apple, instead, in my mind, I get an inner monologue telling me what an apple is. The color, the shape, the size. But I don't really get a visual. Now, ask me to think about a song, and I can create the entire auditory experience of the song. Various instruments, in time. I can manipulate the songs key, slow it down, etc. But there are no visuals accompanying this. I have honestly never really even thought about this. Can people really visualize faces and complex items in life like color and resolution?

jareklupinski 3y ago
> Can people really visualize faces and complex items in life like color and resolution? for my organic chemistry class, it was almost a requirement, so that you could describe the interactions two molecules would have based on their physical properties, and determine the end result curious, if you were asked not just to simply visualize something, but determine an outcome based on physical properties of objects, how does that process play out in your mind? for example, if I were shown a square-shaped hole, and without being shown a cube, I was asked if a typical cube would fit through that hole based on shape and not size, in my mind i would picture one face of a cube and try to match it up with the shape i can see to determine 'yes it fits'
- mathstuf 3y ago
  Not the GP, but I'm also aphantasic. To me, the square hole question is more like "cubes have square faces, therefore yes". Seems to me like touch typing (knowing shapes) vs. hunt-and-peck typing (search for shape, align). For the "what happens if" question, it's similar: "based on facts from experience, what happens next?". I lack the requisite knowledge base for ochem specifically, but in software, I'm usually able to come up with "have you considered input X" when reading code that just isn't handled well. I don't have any visual reference when thinking about such things; I just "feel" that there's an unhandled edge case. There's nothing concrete that visually represents input values, but I guess a marble maze could work for folks though.