People who cannot see images in their minds eye

[ofwarren]

Whenever this is discussed on here, there are those who say people with aphantasia are probably seeing images but don't realise, but now a study has been done that shows that they truly do not see images in their minds eye.

newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/windows-soul-pupils-reveal-aphantasia-absence-visual-imagination

"The study, led by researchers from UNSW Sydney and published in eLife, found that the pupils of people with aphantasia did not respond when asked to imagine dark and light objects, while those without aphantasia did."

This bit was very interesting too:

"We know that thinking in pictures or not affects the number of details in lifelong memories, how emotional we get when reading, and how we hold things in short term memory. This new method will allow us to understand the brain mechanisms of extreme imagery and the global implications for how we think, make decisions and feel.”

Those of you with aphantasia, do you ever cry reading a book?

Fascinating stuff

I have an excellent visual imagination and it really brings books alive for me. However I very rarely cry at anything I read, but I do in films. My husband has no visual imagination and hates reading books. I can also visualise things, like when decorating or moving furniture around, or visiting other houses and imagining we are living there. He finds that really difficult. What that means for me is that I usually get to make all the interior design decisions! He always likes them in the end.

Oh - and of the two of us it is me (the one who has a visual imagination) who has the higher academic achievements.

I have it and definitely have PTSD from DH's death and it distresses me greatly that I can't conjure up his image in my mind's eye, all I have when I try is blackness.

I have this and didn't know anyone saw images in their mind until recently. I have a constant voice in my head, it's my voice, I don't see the words written It's just noise, if that makes sense. I am quite an emotional person so well up a lot. I love both reading and watching tv/films. I don't have a great memory, especially short term

@Deadringer I didn't really think much about it at all until I attended a workshop on memorising poetry at work. There was a technique for remembering that had you walk through an imaginary house and picture things that prompted each line of the poem but I just couldn't "picture" anything as hard as I tried! Still now I try and picture DH or DC in my head and I just can't at all

@Deadringer that’s exactly it. A flash of an image maybe but no more (if someone says imagine a green triangle I know what it looks like but I can’t see it). I didn’t really realise until they talked about birthing techniques at NCT and told us to visualise being on a sunny beach and I was bewildered whilst everyone else described what they were seeing. I can imagine just fine but it’s not with images, it just is.

I'm so sorry

Same for me! Except I have a better short term than long term memory.

I really like my uncluttered mind.

As for @Deadringer I can 'see' a fleeting image, usually based off a memory, particularly a photo.

Doesn't stop my imagination though. I have day dreams with a whole bunch of characters that I've 'watched' grow up over the years. I did make up names for them, but can't always remember what those were. It doesn't seem to matter.

I think I do sometimes have an inner monologue, but it's not there most of the time. If I just sit still I only 'hear' outside noises and a kind of white noise in my head (which might be tinnitus- who knows)

I like when I see a movie and read the book after, (if it's a good adaptation) I have images then for all of the characters and landscapes, and then reading the book fleshes it all out.