another subpower: aphantasia

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Darmok
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10 Oct 2016, 2:12 pm

liveandrew wrote:

I can still sketch a map (I studied A' Level art and then graphics at college back in the 80's), but it's based on non-image memory. It's pretty hard to explain. The memories are there but not accessible as images. I had no idea this was different to anyone else until very recently.

So it's kind of the opposite of this fellow's skill (he is also described as autistic):

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liveandrew
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10 Oct 2016, 2:18 pm

Darmok wrote:

liveandrew wrote:

So it's kind of the opposite of this fellow's skill (he is also described as autistic):

Ha! No, nothing like Stephen

I have the first book he ever did upstairs somewhere. Lovely bloke.

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Diagnosed: Asperger's Syndrome (ICD-10)
Self-Diagnosed: Aphantasia
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 152 of 200
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Jute
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10 Oct 2016, 2:29 pm

Stephen Wiltshire is essentially an autistic savant. He must have what is sometimes termed a photographic memory, the abilty to total recall every detail, combined with enough artist skill to enable him to put his internal visual images accurately on to paper.

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Autism Social Forum

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Jute
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10 Oct 2016, 2:35 pm

liveandrew wrote:

Jute wrote:

I've already got it as a download, I like it

I've got a few "horror" movies, of the coming of age type, things like Joshua, Whisper, Who Can Kill A Child, The Shadow Within and many more.

Another good one I've seen recently is Afraid of the Dark.

Yeah, I've got Afraid Of The Dark as a download, I've got Fear Of The Dark too, on DVD. One of my favourite recent Independent movies was The Raven On The Jetty, which was made in the Lake District. It's a deceptively simply movie with hardly any dialogue but it's one of those movies that you can watch several times and keep finding new stuff in it. And yep, I've got the production scrapbook version, with DVD, signed by the director

liveandrew
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10 Oct 2016, 2:44 pm

Jute wrote:

One of my favourite recent Independent movies was The Raven On The Jetty, which was made in the Lake District. It's a deceptively simply movie with hardly any dialogue but it's one of those movies that you can watch several times and keep finding new stuff in it. And yep, I've got the production scrapbook version, with DVD, signed by the director

Nice

I'll try to track it down.

Edit: just noticed the DVD is available from that link.

SaveFerris
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10 Oct 2016, 8:41 pm

liveandrew wrote:

If you like "coming of age", I'd recommend found. An unusual twist on a serial killer film.

Woah! I just watched it. I thought the acting was terrible unless thats what they were going for. It was a good story though and I like films that make you go "wtf" as the credits role - I felt the same when the credits of Enemy rolled

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liveandrew
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11 Oct 2016, 1:06 am

SaveFerris wrote:

liveandrew wrote:

If you like "coming of age", I'd recommend found. An unusual twist on a serial killer film.

I'm glad you liked it

Found's budget was around $8000 so you're not going to get grade A or even experienced "film" actors for that sort of money. Besides, for an ultra-low budget film they weren't that bad - I've seen way worse! The director, Scott Schirmer, has made three films now, and has also produced (a different director this time) a full-length version of Headless, Found's "film within a film", which is a total bloodbath. He's a lovely man and I've helped fund each of them.

As with Jute, I'd recommend Harvest Lake by the same director. No blood this time but a very trippy film with some stunning cinematography!

TheAvenger161173
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11 Oct 2016, 3:41 pm

Super recognition. I've took several tests and the more comprehensive ones have shown I have super recogniser ability. I scored very high on all tests. Research is being under took by Greenwich university. I think I only have this ability when viewing images, and when I'm specifically paying attention to something, otherwise if I go somewhere I wouldn't recognise everyone in a cafe if they were lined up after. Mainly due to the fact I'm in a world of my own most of the time,or anxious,and don't hold eye contact for long periods. Someone once asked me f I thought in pictures? I was baffled by the question as I thought that's how everyone thought. :0/

broccolichowder
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11 Oct 2016, 10:10 pm

I can see very minimal in my mind's eye, and it wasn't until I read the article about aphantasia a few months ago that I realized that this wasn't normal. I can almost never recall people's faces, and I can't create them from scratch, either. I can't imagine the way people walk or their posture. I can't bring up the color of clothing. It's more like the person is just "there" but isn't there if that makes sense. Every now and again, I'll get a flash of what someone looks like in my mind, but I can't control it.

Edit to say that I'm good with shapes and directions, so even if I can't visualize things, I can still draw maps.

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kokopelli
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10 Aug 2018, 1:33 pm

Jute wrote:

I saw a news report on Aphantasia on TV only a couple of months ago:

BBC Aphantasia A Life Without Mental images

I was totally dumbstruck, until that point I'd never known that some people could see images inside their mind. I had always assumed that terms like daydreaming were simply metaphors and did not realise that they actually described a real mental process. I can see very vivid and realistic images inside my mind when I dream. I can see when my eyes are open but if I close my eyes when I'm awake I see absolutely nothing. I'd always assumed that everyone else was exactly the same. Now I know that I was completely wrong in my assumption. It seems that the vast majority of people can "see" images inside their waking mind, at least to some degree, but I'm a member of a small minority who can't.

I suppose that my discovery that I have Aphantasia at least offers some explanation for why I have a large collection of DVDs and why I collect photographs. I need to look at photographs of people because I can't see those people, no matter how familiar they are to me, in my mind. Likewise I have no visual memory of movies that I've watched. It might also explain why I'm absolutely rubbish at recognising people, perhaps because I have no internal remembered image of the person with which to compare them with.

When I first heard of aphantasia, I was sure it didn't affect me, but after talking to other people I found out that most can readily picture scenes in their minds with decent accuracy. I can visualize only with a great deal of haziness in the visualization and must consciously think about every single item before it is in the scene.

For example, in trying to visualize the building across the street from my office, I see it as a box. Then I think, "it's made of bricks" and I can kind of see, but not quite, the bricks. I don't visualize the doorway until I think of the doorway. And I don't visualize the windows until I think of the windows.

The building is pretty striking. In looking at the building, the contrast between the mortar and the bricks is powerful, but I cannot visualize that even when consciously trying to imagine it.

strings
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10 Aug 2018, 1:43 pm

broccolichowder wrote:

It's more like the person is just "there" but isn't there if that makes sense.

Makes perfect sense to me. As far as I can tell I have total aphantasia. It never occurred to me in my wildest imagination that when people spoke of "seeing things in their mind" they actually meant that they could see images. I just assumed they meant what I meant, namely a vague impression of knowing what things look like, with no images at all. And then I read about aphantasia a couple of years ago, and I realised that many people actually see images. Amazing!!

Darmok
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26 Jul 2019, 11:44 am

This is a few months old, but it may not have been mentioned here yet:

When the Mind’s Eye Is Blind
Some people find it impossible to imagine a friend’s face or their own apartment—a phenomenon named aphantasia. Scientists are beginning to tease out the brain features underlying the condition

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... is-blind1/

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Darmok
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26 Jul 2019, 12:02 pm

Here's a research website: https://aphantasia.com/

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