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Some people can't see mental images

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183 points petalmind | 2 comments | 30 Oct 25 17:45 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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sharkjacobs ◴[30 Oct 25 18:14 UTC] No.45763206[source]▶
> He knew, of course, that people talked about “picturing” or “visualizing,” but he had always taken this to be just a metaphorical way of saying “thinking.” Now it appeared that, in some incomprehensible sense, people meant these words literally.

This is the quintessential aphantasic experience. I still struggle to believe that other people "see" things in their heads.

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nemomarx ◴[30 Oct 25 18:19 UTC] No.45763266[source]▶
Do you see them in dreams? I normally struggle to visualize things but when I'm half asleep my imagination suddenly has color and detail that normally doesn't happen when I try to picture stuff
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1. sharkjacobs ◴[30 Oct 25 18:22 UTC] No.45763311[source]▶
I can't speak about my immediate experience of dreams because I'm not dreaming right now, but when I remember my dreams I remember them the same way I remember anything else, which is to say, without mentally reproducing any visual component of the memory.
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2. Fade_Dance ◴[30 Oct 25 18:32 UTC] No.45763492[source]▶
At first I had some suspicion that perhaps the findings were partly a result of interpretation of the question. After all, I don't generate a crystal clear image of what I'm thinking about - the image has some amorphous qualities and comes in and out of focus.

But dreams are ultra-visual experiences for me, to the extent where I will occasionally have flashbacks or deja vu to dream images that were exceptionally strong.

So that nullified my suspicion! That said, I do wonder if it's a spectrum, in that some people are more or less visual in their thinking, and on the extremes people may get the capability snipped, as the dim visual hum fades to black and background noise.