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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Can you see actual images in your head?

142 replies

pontipinemum · 24/10/2023 09:44

Sorry not really an AIBU but I wanted the voting buttons.

I was watching a reel earlier and they were joking that their dad cannot see images in his head.

I can't see images in my head. When I close my eyes it's black (or red if it's bright!) DH said the same.

I know what things look like, and when I am asked to visualise a beautiful beach, I can remember places I have been but I don't 'see' them in my head. I can get a good 'sense' of what it is like in a book but I don't see the characters.

I'm not sure I am explaining this right at all.

YABU - I can actually see the things I am visualising in my head
YANBU - I see black

OP posts:
Normalsizedsalad · 24/10/2023 16:50

BridgetJonesDaiquiri · 24/10/2023 09:49

Yes I can see images in my head if I imagine them. It's not just memories. If you described to me a scene, I'd picture my interpretation of it. Everything I think of is visual - it's how my brain works.

Same. I only wish my hands were actually artistic to paint it😂
I hope to live long enough for mind printer.
Dh is opposite so he trusts me with thimgs like house decor etc because I just see how it would loom as I stand in an empty room

Normalsizedsalad · 24/10/2023 16:51

Is this similar to how some people don't have "inside voice" ?

DrinkingMyWaterMindingMyBiz · 24/10/2023 16:51

I don’t feel like I can vote either. When I close my eyes it’s just black, and when I try to visualise something I can “see” it but not from my eyes - it’s like the vision is elsewhere in my brain. My eyes stay black.

longtompot · 24/10/2023 16:51

I used to be able to visualise things in my 'minds eye' but can't seem to anymore. I think it's because I can't focus on things as well. I'm trying to get back into reading so this might help me.

Normalsizedsalad · 24/10/2023 16:53

longtompot · 24/10/2023 16:51

I used to be able to visualise things in my 'minds eye' but can't seem to anymore. I think it's because I can't focus on things as well. I'm trying to get back into reading so this might help me.

More complex adult colouring books helped me massively with concentration. 10-15min a day. It's also relaxing because you have to think about not going over the lines so your brain can't run away to stressy things

Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 24/10/2023 16:54

It's not like behind your eyes.
But if you think of an apple, can you compound and image of what an apple is?

SkySecret · 24/10/2023 17:04

@Chelsea26 wow, the brain is so baffling! So is it just like an innate knowledge? You can’t see it, you just know what it was like? I can’t comprehend it

junebirthdaygirl · 24/10/2023 17:17

This is common in people who have dyslexia and really hinders them in school with comprehension work. Sometimes they can read well but have actually no idea what they are reading about so find it difficult to then answer questions. They can slip through the net as their reading gives a false impression. I work with these children and teach them to make movies in their head.

OhBeAFineGuyKissMe · 24/10/2023 18:32

junebirthdaygirl · 24/10/2023 17:17

This is common in people who have dyslexia and really hinders them in school with comprehension work. Sometimes they can read well but have actually no idea what they are reading about so find it difficult to then answer questions. They can slip through the net as their reading gives a false impression. I work with these children and teach them to make movies in their head.

How can you teach people to make movies in their heads if they have no images? Honestly, I would just nod along if you suggested a movie, but I can’t make any images and certainly not merging them together to make a movie.

TheHawkisHowling · 24/10/2023 19:19

junebirthdaygirl · 24/10/2023 17:17

This is common in people who have dyslexia and really hinders them in school with comprehension work. Sometimes they can read well but have actually no idea what they are reading about so find it difficult to then answer questions. They can slip through the net as their reading gives a false impression. I work with these children and teach them to make movies in their head.

I can imagine that. I can literally see the spelling of a word in my head, which is very handy.

I can also memorise all the answers to multiple choice questions by just remembering what they look like. It doesn't mean I actually know the answer though!

longtompot · 24/10/2023 19:21

That's a great idea @Normalsizedsalad I have quite a few here which I haven't even started.
As well as my various crochet and knitting projects... Zero concentration as I say :( but colouring should be an easier thing to pick up and put down as not remembering what stitch or hook/needle size

ilovespinach · 24/10/2023 19:28

I see pictures of words/letters in my head if I'm talking of thinking something through...

Bananazebra · 25/10/2023 08:48

I just don't understand how someone can know what something looks like and describe it without seeing it on some level.

TheBirdintheCave · 25/10/2023 08:56

Bananazebra · 25/10/2023 08:48

I just don't understand how someone can know what something looks like and describe it without seeing it on some level.

Edited

It's hard to describe. I think the words 'red' and 'apple' for example instead of seeing a picture of one.

Newrumpus · 26/10/2023 14:07

Bananazebra · 25/10/2023 08:48

I just don't understand how someone can know what something looks like and describe it without seeing it on some level.

Edited

Imagine that you have saved a document
on your computer. Now imagine that the monitor can’t be switched on. You still
know that the document exists, you know what is contains and you could describe it. But you can’t see it.

That’s what non-visual memories are like. I know what an apple is, I could describe it to you but I can’t visually imagine it as the monitor that is my minds eye is switched off.

Newrumpus · 26/10/2023 14:11

GoodOldEmmaNess · 24/10/2023 14:28

YABU - I can actually see the things I am visualising in my head
YANBU - I see black

The poll options aren't mutually exclusive. Naturally I 'see black' in my head. The visualisations are only metaphorically 'in the head'. Visualisations aren't literally located, any more than (say) anger or love or memories are.
I wonder whether the sharp differences between people whenever this issue comes up are as much to do with different understandings of approximations such as 'in the head', 'mind's eye', etc as they are to do with fundamentally differing experiences.

There is evidence that our experiences are fundamentally different. For example, there are people who used to have internal imagery that have lost the capacity and vice versa. As these people are comparing their own previous and current experiences surely it suggest that there this phenomenon is real and not merely different descriptions of common experiences.

Bananazebra · 26/10/2023 14:19

Thank you to those who have tried to explain it! Sorry I don't know how to tag people. I think I'm developing an understanding now of what it's like. I just think it's so interesting how different people's minds work.
I can visualise things quite well but I'm not good at spelling or directions. It takes me a couple of seconds to think which is left or right. And if someone spells something out loud to me or gives me a phone number I really struggle to take that info in.

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