4 ms·

Can you hear or imagine sounds in your head?

by boricj 2y ago

uclibc 2y ago
Not the GP, but I can. I can play back songs in my head quite vividly or remember and replay how different people sound like, when it's coupled with a memory.
- boricj 2y ago
  Now I'm wondering about other senses. I can readily imagine sounds and pictures, but it took my brain some time before it figured out how to imagine smells and tactile sensations when I asked it, like a muscle that is rarely exercised. Since my imagination layers on top of my existing senses, I wonder if aphantasia is really about the (in)ability to induce sensory hallucinations at will (and to what extent). That's about the only way I can make sense of it personally, given my own subjective experience.
- jackjeff 2y ago
  Not the GP either I can’t do any of that. Sound is like images for me. An abstract concept you can reason about later but only experience in the moment.
  - uclibc 2y ago
    Can you hear your own thoughts when thinking in sentences? If not what does thinking a sentence through feel like?
    - e38383 2y ago
      I can hear my thoughts and even speak to myself. I don't picture myself doing that and I don't have any image in my head. Maybe it "looks" like a comic with only speech bubbles. It's still not the right image, because there is no image, but it also doesn't feel like a total void.
e38383 2y ago
No, like images it's just the concept of the sound. As I can identify images (also people or faces), I can identify sounds, but I can't imagine them. Instead of a picture of a forest and some cracking of wood, I just have these words in my head and not the real picture/sound. Same for every other sense.
- jart 2y ago
  How fast do you read? I can visualize just about anything I've ever seen. I can dream of new visual experiences I've never had. I can even rotate shapes in my head. But I dislike words and I read very slowly (only for English though, with programming I'm a speed reader of code). If you're the opposite of me, then I bet you're able to absorb intelligent high-quality information independent of experience very very quickly. I've heard that people like you make great scholars for that reason.
  - trifurcate 2y ago
    I read very fast (English and code, and my native language), and I have a very vivid visual (as well as auditory) imagination. Wonder what I traded off in this setup.
  - e38383 2y ago
    I read about three times as fast as other people. I'm still not better in absorbing the information, I also make errors and miss key points. The difference is that a book is already in a format I don't need to convert (to images) anymore. About the 3x: if I need to show someone something to read on a screen and need to wait to scroll to the next page, I just read it 3 times and scroll then, it normally fits a "normal" reading speed.

Can you hear or imagine sounds in your head?

by boricj 2y ago

Can you hear or imagine sounds in your head?

Not the GP, but I can. I can play back songs in my head quite vividly or remember and replay how different people sound like, when it's coupled with a memory.

boricj 2y ago
Now I'm wondering about other senses. I can readily imagine sounds and pictures, but it took my brain some time before it figured out how to imagine smells and tactile sensations when I asked it, like a muscle that is rarely exercised. Since my imagination layers on top of my existing senses, I wonder if aphantasia is really about the (in)ability to induce sensory hallucinations at will (and to what extent). That's about the only way I can make sense of it personally, given my own subjective experience.
jackjeff 2y ago
Not the GP either I can’t do any of that. Sound is like images for me. An abstract concept you can reason about later but only experience in the moment.
- uclibc 2y ago
  Can you hear your own thoughts when thinking in sentences? If not what does thinking a sentence through feel like?
  - e38383 2y ago
    I can hear my thoughts and even speak to myself. I don't picture myself doing that and I don't have any image in my head. Maybe it "looks" like a comic with only speech bubbles. It's still not the right image, because there is no image, but it also doesn't feel like a total void.

e38383 2y ago

No, like images it's just the concept of the sound. As I can identify images (also people or faces), I can identify sounds, but I can't imagine them. Instead of a picture of a forest and some cracking of wood, I just have these words in my head and not the real picture/sound. Same for every other sense.

jart 2y ago
How fast do you read? I can visualize just about anything I've ever seen. I can dream of new visual experiences I've never had. I can even rotate shapes in my head. But I dislike words and I read very slowly (only for English though, with programming I'm a speed reader of code). If you're the opposite of me, then I bet you're able to absorb intelligent high-quality information independent of experience very very quickly. I've heard that people like you make great scholars for that reason.
- trifurcate 2y ago
  I read very fast (English and code, and my native language), and I have a very vivid visual (as well as auditory) imagination. Wonder what I traded off in this setup.
- e38383 2y ago
  I read about three times as fast as other people. I'm still not better in absorbing the information, I also make errors and miss key points. The difference is that a book is already in a format I don't need to convert (to images) anymore. About the 3x: if I need to show someone something to read on a screen and need to wait to scroll to the next page, I just read it 3 times and scroll then, it normally fits a "normal" reading speed.