To ask you all about your minds eye?

[GrampieRabbit]

I've had a really long running thread about this a few years ago, but I wanted to revisit it - firstly because I find it really interesting, and secondly for dissertation ideas

So I don't have a minds eye. I couldn't picture a tree in my head, or a house, or my baby's face. I couldn't tell you 100% which colour my room is painted in, or what colour my dads car is. I literally think in words.

This means I have trouble with directions, even to places I've been several times. My memory is absolutely terrible - my long term memory is practically non existent.

Does anyone else experience similar? There's a test you can take here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-340390544*

I know I want to do my dissertation on this condition. I'm so fascinated by it, and have been ever since I realised it was actually a thing (on Mumsnet!)

But I want it to be on aphantasia AND something. I was thinking aphantasia and memory.

But I remember that last time I had a thread on this, Mumsnetters with aphantasia (and myself) read extraordinarily quickly, and always had done from a young age. So I was thinking maybe I could test the strength of participant's minds eyes (couldn't work out the grammar for that phrase!), and then timing them whilst they read something. But might have to include some comprehension questions I guess to check they've actually read it.

Then I started thinking about the fact that people said they had always read quickly - so is this something we're born with? Could I figure out a way to test kids for it? Maybe a little too complicated?

My dissertation proposal's due in a couple of days. It can be really vague - I could probably just get away with writing 'aphantasia', but I want to get paired with the most appropriate supervisor, hence the forward thinking. Am waiting on DD to go to bed then I'll research some more, but these are just some initial ideas.

Please, please share your experiences of aphantasia and thoughts on interesting dissertation ideas

I have this! I didn't actually know it had a name, but this is how I think. I can picture things if I really really try, otherwise it's just words. I could read at 3 and can easily read 1-2 novels a day on holiday/if I have a day to myself.

The mind is a fascinating thing, isn't it?

I never knew this was a thing! I don't have it though. I have a working minds eye. But I am and always have been an exceptionally quick reader and can remember tiny details years later. I read from an early age too, pre-starting school age. My mum always tells the story about my teacher calling her into school and asking her to take me to the local library for a wider range of more challenging books because I'd read all the books that were at my level and above in the school library. She went it and bought me the complete works of Jane Austen at eleven (a massive book) and I sat and read the lot.

Was always utterly dreadful at maths though. Literally goes straight over my head, no matter how well I'm taught. I'm definitely a words person but can definitely visualise.

I imagine visually during conversations. For example a friend talking about a walk with her husband on a beach I know. It's like watching a film in my head with narration.

Also I am the best pararel Parker I know. having once been applauded by strangers

This is fascinating! I did the test and I am hyperphantastic. I guessed that but didn't realise it was 'a thing'. I never forget a face for example. I read very quickly though. I scan the page for the words and create the images in my head at the same time.

I think DP may not have much of a mind's eye, although he would deny this . It causes problems when we are decorating, for example. I can 'see' how things will look once done but he just looks like and has NO IDEA what I am talking about. He has a terrible sense of direction too.

Can I ask - those of you who don't visualise characters/scenes in a book, do you lose your train of thought if you get interrupted whilst reading? Do you need to keep going in order to follow the story so you don't lose track, IYSWIM? Is this why you read quickly?

No, I can easily pick up a book when interrupted.

Book characters, I don't see them in my minds eye, but when I see them on TV or film I can recognise if they are right or wrong.

For example Robin and Strike in the BBC adaptation are right fir me, even though I had no image of then while reading the books.

About dreaming - despite being unable to visualise anything at all while awake, I actually do dream very vividly. I often sleep talk and wake up remembering my dreams.

But if I try to day dream... well, I'm just thinking of something in terms of words, or a vague sense of a thing. Totally different!

3 members of my family have aphantasia too, which makes me wonder if it does often run in families?

I will go and read the full thread as I'm finding this very interesting! I think I'm rather the opposite, if I've been somewhere once I can nearly always find my way back without a map, I also do have a good imagination and when reading the setting, stories and characters are present and have details in my 'minds eye'. However I always have read fast too, and always had an advanced reading age.

This post caught my eye and reminded me about some dementia training I had, we were told that music and speech and memory are stored in different areas of the brain, and sadly dementia can rob people of speech and memory as we know, however the lyrics to a song are stored as music, so a dementia sufferer may not be able to speak or make a coherent sentence, but can and will sing the words perfectly to a favourite song. I've no idea if this has any medical back up but since being told I had noted that some dementia patients whose condition had become severe and they had lost coherency and/or speech could indeed sing all the words to a favourite song. No idea if that's even relevant and apologies if not!

In contrast, my memory for words is extremely good and if set to music even better - I can recite albums worth of lyrics from memory, even from songs I haven't heard in years. A useless skill really but shows the huge difference in my memory for words and visual things.

No, I don't lose my train of thought if I'm interrupted while reading. I have all the details I've already read memorised. I also remember every detail of every book I've read!

According to the test you linked to I have Hyperphantasia.

I put it down to being an avid reader (or maybe I'm an avid reader because I can easily picture things in my mind?).

Well, I knew I visualised everything very vividly, but just took the BBC test and it said I am hyperphantastic and should contact the university of Exeter. I am a very fast reader though, and when we went 'no tech' for a week, managed to read 15 books of both fiction and non-fiction and got through the papers every day. The connection with autism fascinates me, as I know I have traits because of the assessments of my son. He has autism and is still quite young, and I don't want him to be pigeonholed as a savant - but I have really noticed some incredible skills in him. He learnt to read very quickly, and with a complete disregard for phonics, so he just memorised words as he went along. He asked constantly what a new word was, and once you've told him, he knows it and uses it freely. He plays memory games at lightning speed and does puzzles without looking at the box, he'll glance at it once and then tip out 500-1000 pieces and puts it all together and hardly looks up. At 5 he was doing Lego for adults, he did Tower Bridge and the Eiffel Tower, and all sorts of other monuments. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of lots of subjects, including countries, their flags and languages, dinosaurs, plants and fruit and veg, animals and their various breeds/young etc. He can sing a song and use the beat from another and cross them over, which completely muddled my brain when I attempt it. In example, he can sing jingle bells over the tune of we wish you a merry Christmas, or hakuna matata over the tune of the circle of life. Once he starts thinking about a subject, it's like he falls down the rabbit hole, and gathers endless info on that particular subject, and often goes off on a tangent gathering more and more info as he goes along. But. The best thing about him, is that through tonnes of effort with 'mirroring' and giving him endless examples, he has developed fantastic social skills and is beginning to explore his beautiful imagination too. He thinks literally, but visually. He also has dreadful special awareness and crashes into door frames and bangs his toes constantly. He is wonderful.

I'm a quick reader , can easily get through a book a day on hols. When I read I do see the rooms, people and scenery in my mind but it's not sharp , more like soft focus. So I will see if a person is tall or slim or well built, I will see the colour of their hair but their facial features will be blurred. I can see a room but not as a whole, just say the dining room table or staircase.

Fascinating subject!

Can I throw in a bit of a curveball and ask where "smells" come into this?

If you can't see mental ages of a place for example, can you smell it/ conjure up the smell in your head IYSWIM.

I've ways been able to see and smell memories in my head but don't know how common this is.

I did the test and came in the bottom 25%. I can see words in my head really clearly but am useless with numbers , I can't add up if I need to 'carry' a number because I can't remember what it was.

This is really interesting! I had no idea this existed but apparently (according to the linky test) I have hyperphantasia which does not surprise me at all since I have always thought of myself as a very visual person.

When I read I visualise every detail of the scene, even those that are not described by the author. When I try to remember people/places I can usually picture the details very clearly. Interestingly I can also do the same thing with music - when I think of a song I can 'hear' all the parts of the melody and so on, not just the lyrics but I also have a really good memory for song lyrics.

I navigate visually, using familiar objects/surroundings to find where I'm going rather than road names etc so I'm hopeless at giving directions to others, how lost I am relates directly to how well I recognise where I am!

Reasonably good spatial awareness.

Very vivid dreamer and I often remember them.

I also have a form of synasthesia (a visual/touch form), so I can 'see' images or colours when I'm touching or being touched. Not all the time though.

Thank you Chardonnay and Ecu. This is really interesting!

Would those of you with aphantasia say you have a degree of face blindness?

I am an excellent parallel parker too - as long as I don't over think it. I see the car going into the space in my head, then do it.

Crap at mathematics.

Weirdly, absolutely crap at jigsaws. I get very frustrated as I can 'see' the picture I need to make but can't make the shapes work.

Terrible spatial awareness, very little visual imagination, early and avid reader with a great memory. Have I found my tribe?

I just did the test and apparently I have hyperphantasia. But just to put a spanner in the works I was reading before I went to school but i did this from mostly the memory of the word so my spelling and grammar is atrocious

Does anyone else have mental screen savers. I'll be doing something completely unrelated and find myself with a clear image of somewhere i used to know

I scored 40/40. I also read very fast.

Like PP said I can create films or stills in my head. I can picture and 'hear' conversations I've had.

This is so interesting! I have no trouble visualising things and am a relatively slow reader. I'm dyslexic, which may have something to do with that!

I got 38 out of 40 for that test, picturing my best friend who I see every few weeks. If I'd chosen my mum or dad I don't think I'd have done quite as well, though the score would probably be still good.

I imagine this is the same for lots of people, but once I read a book, the 'film' in my head is more or less fixed. For example, the houses the characters live in are 'set' in my head. I can reread the book years later and the way their house looks, its placement on the street and the direction it faces relative to the houses of other characters remains the same as when I first read the book.

My dreams are also incredibly realistic. I can see, smell, touch, taste and hear in them as well as in real life. It's horrible when I hurt myself in a dream! Several times I have been in a dream looking at thousands of individual leaves on a tree, telling myself it can't possibly be a dream because it's too realistic.

Mygorgoeusmilo - your son sounds wonderful

I think I was on your other thread! Interestingly (to me, anyway!); 30 years ago I would have said I had hardly any visualisation, if you said "cup of tea" I would picture the words, not the image, and I read all the time. As I've got older, I visualise a lot more, and read a lot less (although when I do read I definitely don't make a visual image, unless I am really trying hard to for a map or something). I am pretty face blind- when we watch movies, dh always knows the faces (but not the names) and says "it's him that was in that thing we saw I london when the kids were little and the thing with the knife", and I'm, oh X who was in Y and Z, because I know the names but not the faces!

Also, when I was a supply teacher, I learnt the names by the places the children were sitting, and then couldn't recognise them if we did PE!

Havent read FT yet but im a bit discombobulated, I've never heard of this before. I scored 40/40.
Going to RTFT