4 ms·

Sorry to hijack this, but a related problem of mine is I can't picture myself going through a doorway. Like the brain just doesn't compute for some reason.

dhc02 3y ago
Can you picture other things? A long time ago I read that if you are awakened and want to fall back asleep, you should picture yourself turning around, going through a door to your basement stairway and descending the steps towards the dark basement. I tried forever to do this and couldn't, and thought it was something about this scenario specifically. But then years later, I learned about aphantasia and realized I can't actually picture anything at all. The doorway wasn't special.
- kerkeslager 3y ago
  I'm quite adept at visualization, as I'm a visual learner (visualization comes more naturally to me than any other form of thinking) AND visualization is something I regularly, explicitly do in order to prepare for rock climbing. Visualizing myself going through a doorway is difficult even for me. I think it's in part because it requires some creativity (compare "visualize yourself going through a doorway" as opposed to "visualize yourself going through the doorway of your childhood house"). The salient conceptual feature of a doorway is that it goes somewhere and so the prompt basically is asking you to imagine something without explicitly asking you. Even your example of the basement stairway is much easier for me to visualise, because the doorway has stairs after it.
- thelastparadise 3y ago
  > you should picture yourself turning around, going through a door to your basement stairway and descending the steps towards the dark basement. Nope. Not doing that! Sounds like nightmare city!
Eduard 3y ago
huh, so you cannot visualize yourself e. g. going to the toilet by transitioning from the hallway to the bathroom?
nakedneuron 3y ago
Interesting phenomenon. Seems to be a thing. I guess it's because how memory is encoded spatially and in the middle of changing places there would either be no clear signal due to multiple neuron parties firing or the brain is busy with context change in that transition and never builds strong memories of crossing a particular doorway.
ThinkingGuy 3y ago
Sounds like aphantasia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

dhc02 3y ago

Can you picture other things? A long time ago I read that if you are awakened and want to fall back asleep, you should picture yourself turning around, going through a door to your basement stairway and descending the steps towards the dark basement. I tried forever to do this and couldn't, and thought it was something about this scenario specifically. But then years later, I learned about aphantasia and realized I can't actually picture anything at all. The doorway wasn't special.

kerkeslager 3y ago
I'm quite adept at visualization, as I'm a visual learner (visualization comes more naturally to me than any other form of thinking) AND visualization is something I regularly, explicitly do in order to prepare for rock climbing. Visualizing myself going through a doorway is difficult even for me. I think it's in part because it requires some creativity (compare "visualize yourself going through a doorway" as opposed to "visualize yourself going through the doorway of your childhood house"). The salient conceptual feature of a doorway is that it goes somewhere and so the prompt basically is asking you to imagine something without explicitly asking you. Even your example of the basement stairway is much easier for me to visualise, because the doorway has stairs after it.
thelastparadise 3y ago
> you should picture yourself turning around, going through a door to your basement stairway and descending the steps towards the dark basement. Nope. Not doing that! Sounds like nightmare city!

Eduard 3y ago

huh, so you cannot visualize yourself e. g. going to the toilet by transitioning from the hallway to the bathroom?

nakedneuron 3y ago

Interesting phenomenon. Seems to be a thing. I guess it's because how memory is encoded spatially and in the middle of changing places there would either be no clear signal due to multiple neuron parties firing or the brain is busy with context change in that transition and never builds strong memories of crossing a particular doorway.

ThinkingGuy 3y ago

Sounds like aphantasia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia