3 ms·

I don't get this. What is this thing about visualizing a concept? Do these people take hallucinogens to do this exercise? Or are they only reaching for the imag

I don't get this. What is this thing about visualizing a concept? Do these people take hallucinogens to do this exercise? Or are they only reaching for the images of the past when they learned the concept? Is this an american thing? I don't see any image whatsoever when I think about a year. Same with democracy, time, justice or whatever. When I ask my friends, they also don't experience seeing images.

NoboruWataya 3y ago
> Is this an american thing? It's a post by a Norwegian author based mainly on data received from other Norwegians, so...
- gverrilla 3y ago
  It's in English, and HN is an American website. Also Norwegian and American culture are not so distant. I'm just trying to understand because it seems like some kind of cultural phenomena, but I may be wrong. I can't visualize an year even if I take acid, visualizing concepts is just not the way my mind works. Perhaps this is some kind of art-game or something? Or are these people actually saying they see these images when they think about and use the concept of a year???
  - lucideer 3y ago
    > visualizing concepts is just not the way my mind works > are these people actually saying they see these images when they think about and use the concept of a year I do (not a circle but definitely a visualisation I see in my head). I don't know how reliable the data is, nor how well understood the topic is, but most studies I've seen on this do show the majority of people visually visualise concepts in their head; not universally, there's always people who don't visualise at all, but primary differences discussed in these type of results tend to be whether people's visualisations are vivid or vague or something different.
ergl 3y ago
You might have aphantasia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia
- gverrilla 3y ago
  Maybe. Help me. When people in this study say they see for instance a circle when they think about a year, what do they mean exactly? a) every time they have to operate the "year" concept they see this mental image b) when they deliberately want to create an image out of the concept of a "year", they see a circle If (a) I'm probably wildly aphantasiac. If (b) this is only conceptual art.
  - ergonaught 3y ago
    Having ridden this rollercoaster myself, it seems to vary from person to person but most of the people I know have some degree of "a", and can choose "b". You spend some decades thinking "counting sheep" was meant figuratively; you discover that was not the case.
  - lucideer 3y ago
    > what do they mean exactly? Firstly, this study explicitly prompted people first to visualise years as a circle, so there's no guarantee respondents do this every time - so to answer your MCQ, the answer here would most likely be (b). However, if you were to ask whether people visualise something (be it a circle or some different visualisation) every time they have to operate the "year" concept, I suspect the answer would be (a). TL;DR: Aphantasia likely fwiw, Ed Catmull's Disney survey on this topic is interesting (referenced in the wiki article above)
    - gverrilla 3y ago
      Yeah, it seems I'm very aphantasic. Not even deliberately I can create an image of "year". But I can easily write/speak a text about the concept. Now it makes more sense: people always made fun of me when playing Dixit, because when "calling" they would use 1 or 2 short phrases at most, and I would instead declare a very long idea, concept or story lmao. They asked me to be "simpler" or "shorter", but I just wasn't able to do it. It also explains why I always lost in this game because people mostly couldn't grasp my text-based descriptions (winning was never my goal, though). Perhaps it has to do with my bilingual upbringing: juggling with language was my main job for a longggggg time.

NoboruWataya 3y ago

> Is this an american thing? It's a post by a Norwegian author based mainly on data received from other Norwegians, so...

gverrilla 3y ago
It's in English, and HN is an American website. Also Norwegian and American culture are not so distant. I'm just trying to understand because it seems like some kind of cultural phenomena, but I may be wrong. I can't visualize an year even if I take acid, visualizing concepts is just not the way my mind works. Perhaps this is some kind of art-game or something? Or are these people actually saying they see these images when they think about and use the concept of a year???
- lucideer 3y ago
  > visualizing concepts is just not the way my mind works > are these people actually saying they see these images when they think about and use the concept of a year I do (not a circle but definitely a visualisation I see in my head). I don't know how reliable the data is, nor how well understood the topic is, but most studies I've seen on this do show the majority of people visually visualise concepts in their head; not universally, there's always people who don't visualise at all, but primary differences discussed in these type of results tend to be whether people's visualisations are vivid or vague or something different.

ergl 3y ago

You might have aphantasia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

gverrilla 3y ago
Maybe. Help me. When people in this study say they see for instance a circle when they think about a year, what do they mean exactly? a) every time they have to operate the "year" concept they see this mental image b) when they deliberately want to create an image out of the concept of a "year", they see a circle If (a) I'm probably wildly aphantasiac. If (b) this is only conceptual art.
- ergonaught 3y ago
  Having ridden this rollercoaster myself, it seems to vary from person to person but most of the people I know have some degree of "a", and can choose "b". You spend some decades thinking "counting sheep" was meant figuratively; you discover that was not the case.
- lucideer 3y ago
  > what do they mean exactly? Firstly, this study explicitly prompted people first to visualise years as a circle, so there's no guarantee respondents do this every time - so to answer your MCQ, the answer here would most likely be (b). However, if you were to ask whether people visualise something (be it a circle or some different visualisation) every time they have to operate the "year" concept, I suspect the answer would be (a). TL;DR: Aphantasia likely fwiw, Ed Catmull's Disney survey on this topic is interesting (referenced in the wiki article above)
  - gverrilla 3y ago
    Yeah, it seems I'm very aphantasic. Not even deliberately I can create an image of "year". But I can easily write/speak a text about the concept. Now it makes more sense: people always made fun of me when playing Dixit, because when "calling" they would use 1 or 2 short phrases at most, and I would instead declare a very long idea, concept or story lmao. They asked me to be "simpler" or "shorter", but I just wasn't able to do it. It also explains why I always lost in this game because people mostly couldn't grasp my text-based descriptions (winning was never my goal, though). Perhaps it has to do with my bilingual upbringing: juggling with language was my main job for a longggggg time.