Aphantasia study

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In one of the aphantasia tests that Prof. Zeman and his colleagues constructed, the lowest-scoring answer to the typical "How well can you visualise X in your mind's eye" kind of question was for responding "No image at all, you only "know" that you are thinking about the object."

My understanding now is that this kind of response essentially counts as having no mental imagery at all. My own way of describing my experience, which I formulated before I saw the test with that answer I mentioned above, was to say "I see no mental image, but I have a vague knowledge of what things look like."

I suspect your description of "just remembering vague details..." is essentially like my "vague knowledge of what things look like." I think it counts as complete (visual) aphantasia.

I had not previously spent time thinking about the other senses (touch, smell, taste, sound), but I think my answers in my own case would be similar. I have vague impressions of knowledge of what certain things taste like or smell like, for example, but I never even remotely could claim that I can experience the taste or the smell in my mind. In fact I have no conception of what that would even mean.

Are there really people who can experience tastes, smells, touch or sound in their imagination?

I don’t have it.

yes it’s also strange how people with this can still dream but it makes sense if they use the actual visual memory to dream not the imagination to do this awake we’d probably have to go into a deep meditation. I think it would make you a great writer or something you’d have the ability to describe things vividly. I think only my visualization is effected I can imagine taste and smells

I dream but as for visualising while dreaming- It doesn't come readily to mind whether I do or not.

I do badly on visual memory tests.

I don't do well on visual memory tests, either.

I can't imagine scenes, tastes, or smell. I never really thought about touch.

But I can, to a small extent, experience sound in my imagination. The experience is relatively faint, but noticeable.

It is almost like a recording. For example, Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson is distinctly Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles Yesterday is distinctly the Beatles, and Henry Mancini's Baby Elephant Walk is distinctly Henry Mancini. But it's not very strong.

Usually for this to work, I have to have listened to the music multiple times over the years and it needs to be a piece of music that I particularly liked which makes sense because if I don't particularly like it, it probably doesn't make a strong impression on me.

Also, I have to identify the music with a particular person or group. For example, other music I know well, but don't associate with particular performers is kind of muddled. Christmas carols are an example -- I have to concentrate really hard for something like Silent Night to have even the lightest affect.

All in all, the effect is pretty limited. My guess is that it is only for something like ten to twenty pieces.

Test Name: Novel Objects Visual Memory Test
Primary Domains: visual memory, visual recognition
Demo Link:
http://www.testmybrain.org/tests/novel_ ... erins.html
Psychometrics: Excellent
Time (minutes): 11.1
Description of Test: Learn and then recognize a set of novel objects

Higher than zero out of every ten people that took this test.


Test Name: Abstract Art Visual Memory Test
Primary Domains: visual memory
Demo Link: http://www.testmybrain.org/tests/abstract_art/
Psychometrics: Excellent
Time (minutes): 7.7
Description of Test: Learn and then recognize a set of images of abstract art (i.e. visual images
that are hard to describe).


Higher than one out of every ten people that took who took this test.



Test Name: Visual Working Memory
Mobile Version Available?: Yes
Primary Domains: visual working memory, change detection
Demo Link: http://www.testmybrain.org/tests/vwm/index_buttons.html
Psychometrics: Good
Time (minutes): 4.6
Description of Test: Identify whether a symbol is the same or different as one shown before it in
the same location.

Higher than zero out of every ten people who took this test.

I’m a new driver and this affects my driving do you have any advice? Do any of you drive? It makes me not able to plan ahead because I don’t remember the visual information so I got to do everything on the spot.

There is just one sound that I do experience in my imagination, but it is a rather irritating one; tinnitus, in the form of a continuous high-pitched tone. It is about 10KHz, and reminds me of the the loud whistle I would hear when walking past TV showrooms in the UK in the days of 405 line TV.

Interestingly, although I hear a very steady 10KHz tone, I don't hear any interference beat if I try feeding a nearby frequency from a signal generator into a loudspeaker. I guess that gives a nice demonstration that the tinnitus tone is purely in my imagination!

I have tinnitus, too, but that's not really aphantasia.

Indeed, tinnitus is not aphantasia. The audio aphantasia that I was speaking of was precisely that I can bring into mind absolutely no sound in my own imagination. I mentioned the tinnitus just as an ironic comment, to emphasise the total absence of any useful or desirable re-creation of sounds in my mind.

For those here with aphantasia, do you think that affects the movies you enjoy?

^ I've not noticed it affecting the movies I enjoy .

Movies are probably loved by people with this they get to see without having to visualize anything same with video games