3 ms·

100% visual aphant here, but have a very strong musical "minds-ear". So not full-sense aphantasic. Best self-described mental model for how my brains feels int

100% visual aphant here, but have a very strong musical "minds-ear". So not full-sense aphantasic. Best self-described mental model for how my brains feels internally is as objects (in the programming sense) with properties and relations. As I "imagine" something, I'm recalling the object "living room couch", and then enumerating properties of that object "leather, brown, L shape." If I think of something on the couch e.g. "cushion", then it starts off being just a relationship "cushion is on the couch" without any location component. If I then inspect the "location" property of the cushion, then I think "the cushion sitting upright in the L-shaped bend of the couch." I'm pretty damn good at spatial reasoning in my head, e.g. I can "design" a component in my head, and then sit with Fusion 360 and create it as a 3D CAD model... but I'm not actually seeing anything in my head at all. It still remains in that abstract object <> properties <> relations head-space. In some ways, when I'm imagining a 3D object in my head, I'm actually thinking "this sketch" with "this shape" extruded by 10mm. So the actual constructive process by which an object is realized in my mind IS the actual process by which I'd design it.

galangalalgol 2y ago
I'm like you. I have good spacial intelligence, but I never realized until reading this headline that some people actually see what they are imagining? That seems insane.
- hallway_monitor 2y ago
  Likewise, I think it seems insane to them that we don’t automatically form a mental picture of everything we think about! Did you see the apple test linked in a comment? Time I’ve seen the test and I am a four not totally aphantasic but close.
- henrikschroder 2y ago
  Every single time an article about aphantasia gets posted, there's always people like you in the comments going "wait, what, when people say they see things they're imagining, they actually do that?" Yes. Most people do. > That seems insane. Think of a song you like. Play it in your head. Can you hear it? Can you tap the beat? Can you whistle along with the melody? Can you join in and sing the chorus when it comes? But you know you're not actually hearing the song, right? Visualization is just like that, but for your vision, not your hearing. In the same way you can replay a sound you've heard in your head, most people can replay a thing they saw in their heads.
Always42 2y ago
I relate, fun to see other people operate this way
Instantnoodl 2y ago
Literally the same for me. Both the object + relation part and the 3D construction. I can't see anything in my mind yet I can construct the full geometry of my living room very detailed just from memory or can easily trace a route between locations I know, even if I didn't visit them a lot. It's like being a 3D printing nozzle and being able to trace whatever I need in my head without seeing. That's probably the reason why I really like digital/web design and CAD because the length and geometry is very well defined based on basic shapes. It's like the visualization of what I would do in my brain?
LocalH 2y ago
It's weird for me as I have absolutely no visual component to it, but I can still "visualize" objects in a non-visual way. I can "manifest" an object, and I can "feel" it is there, and transform it within reason (rotation, movement, scale). There is a subconscious "feeling" that the object is there, and what its current state is. However, there is no visual image. I cannot visualize an object and have any representation of it appear in my visual field, no matter how weak. I don't explicitly enumerate the properties of an object I'm "looking" at in the way that you do, though. It's just... "there", and I know it's "there" and what its properties are.

galangalalgol 2y ago

I'm like you. I have good spacial intelligence, but I never realized until reading this headline that some people actually see what they are imagining? That seems insane.

hallway_monitor 2y ago
Likewise, I think it seems insane to them that we don’t automatically form a mental picture of everything we think about! Did you see the apple test linked in a comment? Time I’ve seen the test and I am a four not totally aphantasic but close.
henrikschroder 2y ago
Every single time an article about aphantasia gets posted, there's always people like you in the comments going "wait, what, when people say they see things they're imagining, they actually do that?" Yes. Most people do. > That seems insane. Think of a song you like. Play it in your head. Can you hear it? Can you tap the beat? Can you whistle along with the melody? Can you join in and sing the chorus when it comes? But you know you're not actually hearing the song, right? Visualization is just like that, but for your vision, not your hearing. In the same way you can replay a sound you've heard in your head, most people can replay a thing they saw in their heads.

Always42 2y ago

I relate, fun to see other people operate this way

Instantnoodl 2y ago

Literally the same for me. Both the object + relation part and the 3D construction. I can't see anything in my mind yet I can construct the full geometry of my living room very detailed just from memory or can easily trace a route between locations I know, even if I didn't visit them a lot. It's like being a 3D printing nozzle and being able to trace whatever I need in my head without seeing. That's probably the reason why I really like digital/web design and CAD because the length and geometry is very well defined based on basic shapes. It's like the visualization of what I would do in my brain?

LocalH 2y ago

It's weird for me as I have absolutely no visual component to it, but I can still "visualize" objects in a non-visual way. I can "manifest" an object, and I can "feel" it is there, and transform it within reason (rotation, movement, scale). There is a subconscious "feeling" that the object is there, and what its current state is. However, there is no visual image. I cannot visualize an object and have any representation of it appear in my visual field, no matter how weak. I don't explicitly enumerate the properties of an object I'm "looking" at in the way that you do, though. It's just... "there", and I know it's "there" and what its properties are.